Our first year of farming was not a good one, as we ran into several problems.

1. Pricing for soybeans and corn are at very low levels compared to the high cost of inputs.  Many farmers say this was the worst year for farming they have ever seen.

2. We planted our soybeans on April 18 and then got a 7-inch rain which drowned out most of our planting.

3. We replanted on May 22 and again got a 7-inch rain which again drowned out most of our planting.

4. Our corn was planted early on higher ground and got a reasonable yield of 178 bushels, but our soybeans yielded only 30 bushels per acre.

5. No planting will survive a 7-inch rain, but we did learn that our property is in severe need of ditch and drainage work.

Despite poor financial success, we did learn several things with our 2025 crop that will benefit us with future crops.

1. All of our cover crops were planted on Oct 1.  But we had 30 days of drought, and so the crop did not germinate and start to grow until a rain hit on Oct 31.  Ideally, we would like to have the cover crop growing in September.

2. We planted corn on March 19.  Because we were concerned that the cover crop would compete with the corn planting for nitrogen, we terminated the cover crop in late February.  The cover crop was only about 12 inches high.  With a late planting and early termination, we did not get the root growth and biomass that we were hoping for.

3. In 2026, we are going to try two different methods.  For the fields that we know will go into corn and were harvested early, we are going to plant a summer cover crop. (a crop that will grow in the summer and die off with the first frost.)  We will plant early in September and hope to get almost full growth before the die off.  We will then plant corn early in the year.
   For the other fields, we hope to plant a winter cover crop (grows in the winter and dies off in the spring.)  in September that will get off to a better start and so will have a higher level of biomass by late February of next year.

4. For the winter cover crop that we planted last year, even though growth started in November, we got really good growth by the time we wanted to plant soybeans in April.  Unfortunately, the heavy rains ruined our best of plans.

5. In 2025, we experimented with a variety of grasses.  Looking for the best biomass growth and earliest maturities.  We tried Elbon Rye, Merced Spring Rye, and Black Oats.  The Merced Spring Rye was an expensive experiment to see if it would mature much earlier than the Elbon Rye.  It reached Anthesis (flowering) only about one week ahead of the Elbon Rye.  But the biomass for the Merced was much less than Elbon. We learned that Elbon matures soon enough and provides much more biomass for the cost of the seed.  The Black Oats matured too late to allow for an early planting of soybeans or corn.  Next year, we will try Triticale, Spring Oats, Barley in comparison to Elbon Rye.

6. We learned that the brassica that we planted, rape, did not die off in the winter or spring and developed large leaves that competed with the soybeans.  As much as we would like brassicas in our mix, unless we are willing to terminate with chemicals, they may not work out.

7. We learned that the grasses, Rye in particular, prevented other weeds from growing in the field.  We don’t know if that was a result of competition or allelopathic properties, but this was a significant finding.  We expect that we can reduce herbicides and offset the cost of the cover crop.  If we can get a strong straw mat down after planting the soybeans, we may be able to get away with only one herbicide application (several weeks after planting) or none at all.

8. In 2025, we mixed summer cover crops with winter cover crops.  It did not hurt us in 2025, because of the late germination and so the summer crop did not achieve maturity before the first frost.  But we now realize mixing the two growing seasons is a risk.  If the summer crop reached maturity and developed seeds, those seeds would become weeds in our soybeans and corn.  The summer crop would have to be terminated sometime in November is seeds are staring to develop.  That would kill our winter crop. 

9. We are experimenting with different types of cover crops and are probably planting at higher seed rates than we should.  But we are learning, if we reduce seeding rates,   should be able to get a good cover crop with multiple species at a cost of below $40 per acre.