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The warmer weather forecast has me thinking about new beginnings and the resurrection of our dormant overwintering cover crops. While some will let the covers grow for some time yet, those covers in fields going to corn this spring will likely be terminated in the next few weeks. Regardless of when you choose to terminate your cover crop, remember that the best management practice is to terminate 10-14 days ahead of corn planting. Timing is less critical for soybean, but killing the cover crop prior to soybean emergence reduces risk to crop yield.

I received one report of a cereal rye control failure this week as temperatures warmed and rye growth resumed. Some follow-up questions and photos showed that concerns regarding burndown applications during cool, early-spring conditions have merit.