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​For 2026, our plan is to plant fields 03, 04, &05 in Corn.  Because we plan to plant early towards the end of February or early March and cannot have a growing cover crop within 3 weeks of planting, we are planting an early cover crop in fields 04 and 05 where the corn was harvested the first week of August. In fields 04 and 05, we planted the cover crop around Sept 12.  This cover crop is a 100% summer crop. We hope to get almost full growth before it is terminated by the first frost.  We hope it does not go to seed before the frost, or we will terminate it early with the roller crimper.  We hope to develop a thick straw mat on the ground that will suppress weed growth in the spring while we wait to plant corn.

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We also plan to plant field 3 in corn.  Because that field was in soybeans and will not be harvested until late September, around Sept 14, we had an airplane fly on our cover crop into the yellow soybeans so the summer cover crop could get a head start on the growing season.  That is an experimental test.

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Our current plan for field 01A, 01B, and 02 is to plant those fields in soybeans.  But if soybeans continue to drop in value compared to corn, we may change our mind and plant corn.  For those fields, we mixed a summer crop and a winter crop.  Our hope is that the first frost will kill the summer crop before it goes to seed.  If we must terminate the summer crop before it goes to seed, we are not certain what will happen with the winter crop.  That will be a learning experience.  We expect those cover crops to be planted before the end of September.  Our main goal with these experimental winter cover crops is to find two or three grass types that can be mixed in the future and that all mature early and at the same time.  We are testing Barley, Spring Oats, and Triticale along with the Elbon Rye