It’s prime cover crop planting season, meaning it’s also rye cocktail season. But this is also a time when farmers can feel at a loss when it comes to seed choices. A desire to simplify and improve that decision-making with cover crop mixes that work for both livestock operations and grain farms inspired Renovo Seed’s Rye Cocktail mixes.
Each proprietary mix is anchored with hearty rye, a winter annual and nutrient-catching cover crop workhorse that does well both in the Upper Midwest and Corn Belt states. The Rye Cocktails add other broadleaves and legumes based on a producer’s specific end goal, such as increasing soil biology and plant diversity or decreasing water erosion.
“Cover crops add diversity with multiple species in one planting,” explains Renovo Seed Product Expert Justin Fruechte. “That improves land resiliency and helps mitigate risk stemming from each season’s unique weather, weed, and pest challenges.”
“No matter the situation, you’re giving yourself an opportunity to be covered,” he adds. “Pun intended.”
Most farmers, ranchers, and landowners try a cover crop after being presented with a need – often a livestock farmer in need of feed, according to Fruechte. “If that farmer is going to plant rye as a forage, it makes sense to add something to it to make it work even harder.”
That was the case for David Larson, a row-crop and beef producer in Stevens County, Minnesota. He used the Mellow Maker Rye Cocktail in a field where cattle grazed over winter and corn followed in spring. “The seedbed was much better and more ideal to plant into,” shares Larson. “The corn came out of the ground faster and with a better stand. It tasseled earlier. I even had a slight increase in yield.”
The long-term return on investment is building organic matter, Larson says. “I want the soil to be here for the next couple hundred years and as healthy and productive as possible.”
Those results don’t surprise Fruechte. The Mellow Maker Rye Cocktail is made for acres that need increased water infiltration and decreased compaction. The cocktail’s radish, turnip and rapeseed work together to create alleyways for water to seep into the soil. Species in this mix also work to suppress weeds and keep necessary nutrients in the soil for cash crops.
Other cocktail mixes include the All-American, a good all-around mix that builds nitrogen levels for cash crops to utilize, and Winter Wonder that gets fields ready for a green spring and minimizes early weeds.
The All-American Rye Cocktail is a classic, dual purpose diverse mix that works great for both livestock grazing and nitrogen capture.
A trio of winter annuals is included in the Winter Wonder Rye Cocktail, a mix designed to provide diversity for spring growth, promote soil biology, protect soil from erosion and create an ideal seedbed for cash crops.
Click here to learn more about Renovo Seed’s Rye Cocktail mixes.
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