When Jay Whalen started testing seed and cover-crop products on his own acres, the trials changed how the family farms in Livingston and La Salle counties. Today the Whalens run a 50/50 corn-soybean rotation with cover crops across their operation, and Jay says the practice has transformed field tilth and water infiltration. Cover crops on all acres is how he summarizes the shift and the payoff he’s seeing in soil structure and drainage.
The farm plants cereal rye on cornstalks ahead of soybeans and uses mixes ahead of corn that include oats, annual rye and radishes. Jay splits those corn-ahead acres so only part overwinter, which helps him manage spring fieldwork and residue. He’s still experimenting with adding more species — clovers and other legumes have been harder to establish and overwinter in his area.
Seeding methods vary by crop and timing: cereal rye is broadcast after harvest or drilled for an even stand, while cover crops for soybeans are applied aerially into standing beans using a drone. He has also tried in-crop seeding with a Hagie sprayer but finds establishing cover crops under very tall, high-yielding corn is difficult. The drone work the last two seasons has produced “pretty good results,” he reports.
Seeding and establishment
Whalen combines no-till and strip-till with his cover-crop strategy to preserve residue and minimize soil disturbance. He says the changes have notably improved infiltration — after a recent one-inch rainfall he observed no standing water in fields where neighbors had puddles. That improved water movement is one of the reasons he continued expanding cover crops across his acres.
He also uses soil information to guide fertility and seeding decisions, pairing PCM benchmarking reports with his soil-test results to choose hybrids and adjust management. Working with a PCM specialist gives him field-by-field comparisons to county and state averages, which he uses to prioritize the most and least profitable fields.
Nutrition and soil testing
On fertility, Whalen applies humic acid as a regular soil conditioner and relies on urea or UAN for nitrogen needs. He broadcasts ag-grade humic acid in mini-bulk totes at about 50 to 75 pounds per acre and says it helps nutrient uptake, water retention and microbial activity. He has moved away from applying dry phosphate and potash on many acres after shifting his soil testing to an organic-focused approach and finding the organic fertility indicators sufficient for those fields. Haney soil testing is central to how he evaluates those organic nutrient pools.
Reducing dry fertilizer use has also lowered his input bills, Jay says, and fits with his goal of improving long-term soil health. He balances that approach by tracking both soil-test results and field performance, making fertility and seed choices from that combined information.
Programs and payments
To offset cover-crop costs and capture carbon payments, the Whalens enrolled in Precision Conservation Management and state and federal conservation programs for strip-till and no-till practices. PCM provides free technical assistance, benchmarking reports and carbon payments from participating companies; participants are paid for the information they provide and receive annual enrollment payments. Jay expects payments that combine cover-crop, no-till, strip-till and carbon elements to approach $150 an acre for eligible practices on his operation.
He has renewed PCM enrollment annually and values the program’s flexibility and the decision-support it provides, saying the service takes only a few hours of his time each year while producing usable information for making agronomy and fertility choices.
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