Soybean Cover Cropping Trial

In 2016, the University of Vermont Extension Northwest Crops and Soils Team interseeded cover crops into soybean varieties to evaluate cover crop establishment and effect on soybean yield at Borderview Research Farm in Alburgh, VT. Growing conditions in Alburgh are conducive to grow soybeans from maturity group 1.8 and under. Due to the later harvest date of soybeans in Vermont, little research has been done of cover crop establishment. Cover crops, particularly legumes, have difficultly establishing after the late soybean harvest and are not able to develop enough biomass to protect the otherwise bare soil during the winter. In an effort to support and expand the local soybean market throughout the northeast and increase soil health in fields rotated with soybeans, the University of Vermont Extension Northwest Crop and Soils (NWCS) Program, as part of a grant from the Eastern Soybean Board, established a trial in 2016 to evaluate cover crop seeding methods and establishment in soybeans.