Cover Crops For Fall & Government Funding
Below in this email, Blair has compiled some key points from the On Farm Climate Action Fund and how to qualify.

Some people use traditional fall rye as a cover once hills are formed in potatoes by spreading on, others are seeding barley between their bean windrows and having good luck reducing erosion.

Rye, Winter Wheat, Barley, Daikon Radish, Clovers, Italian Ryegrass and more is available.
Let us help you plan a rotation / cover that works for you and look below for some possible funding for seed.




This program asks that you go beyond the routine farm or project site practice to be eligible.
Cover crop eligible activities:

• Late summer or fall seeded crops to help with erosion control, soil health management. May also provide additional forage or grazing if enough winter cover is left prior to freeze up.
  
• Partial or full season cover, which are to provide sufficient winter cover prior to freeze up and are to be terminated before the following crop.
  
• Bedding cover crops for potatoes and sugar beets
  
• Cover crops under seeded to a spring crop
  
• May include cover crop under seeded with a marketable crop where the cover crop regrows following harvest.
  An expansion of a current on farm BMP to a different field where it has not been used before is eligible
  

This practice does not include crops that will be harvested as a marketable crop in the following year (winter cereals) but forage or grazing is a permitted use of a cover crop.
Deadline to apply for the 2022 growing season is November 7th,2022. They must be approved by a professional agrologist or CCA prior to submission. It reopens February 13, 2023 for the following growing season. Greg Stamp is a CCA and can approve these plans. Any questions on this can be directed to [email protected] 
The website with more information: https://rdar.ca/ofcaf/ 
Each Farm is allocated a maximum of $75,000 total in all the years. 
Farm must cover up front costs, keep receipts of everything and then submit from there even if the activity has already happened.
We do have barley, fall rye, winter wheat, italian ryegrass, clover, radish, and blends available but some items may be 5 business days away. 
Any questions on this can be directed to [email protected]

​Details on ​Hybrid Fall Rye
Many people are growing hybrid fall rye for its yield, weed suppressing ability, flexibility and net returns. There are milling and distilling markets but many feeders are using it as an alternative economic feed source. A win/win for the crop farmer and animal farmer.
More details of feed use here & forage use here.

Hybrid fall rye is sold by the unit, 1 unit is 1 million viable seeds. 
Farmers target 0.8 of a unit per ac. If the crop is for forage use, organics, or you are seeding late in the fall the use rate could increase.
The amount of lbs per unit will change depending on the seed lot due to germination and seed size. Most seed lots are between 70-90 lbs per unit (56-80 lbs per ac use rate)
We can fill tote bags and usually have some in the warehouse ready to sell in 28 unit bag sizes (35 ac)
Even flowering timing is critical to reduce ergot risk so even seeding depth, slow seeding speeds and any residue management ahead of time is important. 

Hybrid fall rye:

• Has short strong straw for rye, suitable for irrigation or dry land​
• Excellent grain quality with plump seeds and excellent falling numbers for rye milling
• Hybrid yield potential 20-40% more than traditional rye varieties, preforms well under stress
  • Amazing potential on dry land​ and irrigation
  • Rye has double the root system of winter wheat so can scavenge for water and nutrients
• Strong winter survivability
• Silage yield potential very high with good quality and early harvest
  • ​Some farms double crop by cutting the rye before heading and allowing it to regrow. Others are silaging rye in early July and plant oats following the rye silage.