In general, the longer and warmer the growing window for cover crops, the more you can accomplish with it. Whether you're looking for weed suppression, nitrogen production, disease suppression, additional forage, manure nutrient capture, erosion control, etc., these benefits are multiplied the longer your cover crops have to grow.

Planting cover crops after wheat harvested for grain, or other early harvested crops where no fall crop will be grown, provides a longer growing window, which in turn, allows the use of a wide range of cover crop species. Warmer soils and weather temperatures allow more rapid establishment and growth, resulting in greater nutrient uptake. More growth means more protection for the soil than when cover crops are planted after later harvested crops like corn and soybeans.

TILLAGE RADISH® AFTER WHEAT

Tillage Radish® is a great cover crop option after wheat. It is easy to establish, and, if not winter terminated, easy to control in the spring.

It gives a "rotation effect" to most agricultural systems because it is so biologically different than common cash crops (wheat, corn, soybeans, sunflowers, and sorghum). Having a brassica in the rotation will help minimize the risk of carry-over diseases and insects from persisting in your fields.

Because Tillage Radish® residue breaks down faster than residues from most other winter-terminated cover crops, it allows the soil to warm up earlier. Also, as the Tillage Radish® tuber and roots break down, holes and root channels left behind help to dry wet soil surfaces, while allowing snow melt and spring rains to infiltrate into dry soils. 

The rapid residue breakdown helps stimulate microbial activity, which speeds up decomposition of high carbon wheat residue remaining in the field. 

If manure is applied after wheat harvest (a common practice in some areas to avoid application on wet spring soils), remember that the nutrients contained in manure are at high risk of loss due to leaching over the fall, winter, and spring. Tillage Radish® and oats are particularly good at capturing nutrients from manure, resulting in increased growth, which then provides more soil cover to help smother fall weeds. While neither of these species overwinter in most of the northern US, the vegetative mat that remains in the spring can slow emergence of spring annual weeds, as well. 

This increased growth also means more nutrients are retained in the cover crop organic matter that, when released by soil microbes in the spring, will be available for the next crop.