So, what's a better no-till cover crop for this area, rye or triticale? What's an optimum planting date, late August or late September? Could a mixture work best on my farm? These are some of the questions pondered by a small group of people that came to a cover crop field day Tuesday at the Penn State Southeast Ag Research and Extension Center just outside of Manheim.

Trap crops are used to absorb nitrogen from the no-till soil. If the cover crop is not grazed or harvested, the N taken up by the crop remains on-site and is preserved within the residue for use by future crops.

John Teasdale is trying to answer a question that might seem obvious: Why does rye work as a cover crop? Rye suppresses weeds without herbicides, making it a common cover crop on organic farms.

Perennial groundcovers' root systems may contribute enough carbon to the soil to offset the loss of carbon when stover is removed.

With taproots that can grow several feet deep, the carrot-shaped tillage or forage radishes bore holes into the ground, loosening the soil.

An option for getting an earlier establishment on fall seeded cover crops is to over-seed.