While many cover crops are being planted following corn-soybean rotations to reduce soil erosion, increase soil health, and even for weed control, some producers also desire to use their cover crops for grazing and/or forage.

KIOWA, Kan. — During the past 10 years, Bob Schrock switched his farm in South Central Kansas from a full tillage cattle grazing enterprise to a no-till, grain-only system while pioneering the successful introduction of a new crop, winter canola.

Ray Menke of Fort Madison, Iowa, says the benefits of 25 years of no-till helped him through this years extreme drought.

With both extremely wet and dry conditions happening in the same growing season, it is not a stretch to call 2011 a strange year in Manitoba, but it has helped prove the effectiveness of perennial and annual forage seed blends known as "polycrops", or cover crops, in dealing with extremes of weather.