RALEIGH, N.C. (DTN) -- Zeb Winslow III offered a bit of southern farming wisdom when he described the first time he opted to plant a spring cash crop directly into a multi-species cover crop after a heated discussion about it with his father.

"My grandfather always told me that the Lord looks after idiots and little children," Winslow said. "I'm not sure which one I was at that time, but when we dropped that planter in there and planted into it that year, it was some of the most beautiful conditions I've seen behind the planter."

He added, "We've had way more failures since then, but that first round when I put the whole thing on the line, it went great."

Winslow was among the farmers who discussed some of their soil-health practices in North Carolina last week as the Conservation Technology Innovation Center (CTIC) held its 19th Conservation in Action Tour around northeast North Carolina. With some related events tied in, groups such as Field to Market, the Soil Health Institute and Farmers for Soil Health helped boost tour attendance to roughly 250 people.

The tour also included a visit to the Leggett Farming Partnership near Nashville, North Carolina, where the Leggett family grows cotton, peanuts, tobacco, corn, sweet potatoes, watermelon and strawberries on roughly 3,000 acres. The Leggetts had cotton drilled into wheat stubble as well as peanuts planted on highly erodible sandy soil.

Despite a roughly 10-inch rainfall deficit in the region this year, Brent Leggett and his son Colin discussed using winter wheat as a cover crop, about 100 pounds an acre broadcast with a spreader, after tobacco or sweet potatoes. A few years ago, the winter wheat cover crop was used to take up excess moisture from heavy spring rains, but this year it has helped retain moisture for cash crops, Colin Leggett explained.

"As dry as it is, you all can dig down and see there is moisture down there," he said. "I think we're really putting a lot of money back into our pockets holding that moisture in there and push that yield a little further."

Leggett added, "We have seen a lot of value in that, especially with our cotton on some of our average to mediocre land -- not the best in the world. We have taken some average farms and turned them into really good land. It really makes you feel like you have done something. 'Man, I took this farm and really taken it to the next level, putting something back into the soil.'"

On Winslow's farm, he first began planting multi-species cover crops in 2013 and has been experimenting more ever since. Winslow said he doesn't necessarily see cover crop as a way to increase yields, but the changes in soil conditions have helped reduce input costs, especially in the past few years.

"For me, that's a much easier way for me to increase profitability by cutting back on my inputs as opposed to trying to chase more bushels."

Conventional soil test recommendations would suggest Winslow's soil needs lime, phosphate and potash every year, but he has gone six seasons with a particular 10-acre strip in his field without applying any of those to that strip. The result has been a 1.5-bushel decline in corn and 1.8 fewer bushels of soybeans over three total cropping seasons. Based on applications in an adjacent strip, Winslow estimates he's saved $45 an acre over that 10-acre strip, which more than balances out that minor loss in yield.

"I can't pay for $45 worth of fertilizer with 1.5 bushels of corn and 1.8 fewer bushels of beans," he said.

That 10-acre field also acts as a "canary in the coal mine" should there be a drop in production over the lack of fertilizer applications, but Winslow doesn't think there will be any sharp decline. "We've got way more robust biology population in that 10 acres," he said.

While persistently high fertilizer prices may be one motivation for farmers to consider cover crops, Winslow cautions farmers to start small with cover crops and stay in their comfort zone. Legumes might help with nitrogen, but Winslow said it really took more than five years of planting a cover crop mix before he started cutting back on fertility rates.

"If you are coming out of a conventional tillage system, nutrient cycling and nitrogen reductions aren't something that are going to happen overnight," he said. "When we started with multi-species blends, we were at least 15 years removed from conventional tillage."

Other adjustments also help. Winslow explained changes he made with planter spacing on cover crops, such as planting cover crops on 18-inch centers to match the 36-inch spacing on cotton and corn. He's also reduced his cover crop application rate from 55-60 pounds down to 25-30 pounds an acre and has noticed that the changes have allowed more root growth with his cover crops.

"Putting that cover crop on row spacing that matches our cash crop has really been a game changer in helping establish our cash crop, maximizing the benefits of our cover crop while minimizing the risk to our cash crop," Winslow said.

Still, Winslow also cautions that nitrogen tie-up with a cover crop is definitely possible. He described a field that had five acres of corn and five acres of cotton. The cover crops planted behind corn had a longer time to grow and were more mature when the next year's crop was planted, which locked up some of the nitrogen in the cover crops. That caused Winslow to make some changes to his blend ratios, increasing the legumes and decreasing some of the cereals in the mix. Cutting back the seeding rate helped there as well.

"We've seen a lot less issue with tie-up since we got away from those really high seeding rates," he said.

Winslow runs a six-way blend of rye, triticale, oats, crimson clover, vetch and radishes, though he noted he is looking to make some tweaks and adds to the mix. He's looking to adjust his mix ahead of corn to try to produce a little more nitrogen from the cover crops rather than buy it.

"I've got some stuff that we may change going into next season but for now that's what we're doing," he said.

Winslow credits his dad in the late 1990s for "doing the heavy lifting" and coming out of conventional tillage into strip-till with a single-species cover crop.

"That's a whole lot more daunting than what I've done," he said.

At the same time, Winslow acknowledged having some difficult intergenerational conversations with his dad about planting into multi-species cover mixes.

"We've bumped heads quite a bit since then to the point where he finally just looked at me and said, 'I'm not coming to the field when you plant,'" Winslow said, adding "Having multiple generations involved is definitely something that -- there's a lot of wisdom there, but there's also a lot of conflict."

Curiosity was a major motivation for Winslow to look at multi-species cover crops after watching former USDA soil health leader Ray Archuleta talk about the benefits. He also had heard other producers make some pretty lofty claims about the changes as well.

"I've still not made it to some of the lofty claims that I've heard cover crops can do, but we're getting a lot closer," he said.

Winslow points to benefits seen more immediately such as moisture retention and weed suppression. Then he saw the amount of life that comes back into the soil, such as earthworms and ground beetles. He acknowledges being humbled and "stubbing his toe" a few times as he has made adjustments to his rotation and cover crops.

"I look at cover crops as a tool on our farm and the more uses I can find for them, the better off we are," he said.

The tour also included a visit to Nash Produce, one of the country's largest processors of sweet potatoes, and a conversation with Tidewater Grain Co., which is growing and processing heritage rice in North Carolina.

CTIC leaders also announced next year's tour will be held in Wisconsin.

Videos from CTIC tour:

North Carolina farmer Zeb Winslow: https://www.dtnpf.com/…

CTIC Executive Director Ryan Heiniger: https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com

Follow him on social platform X @ChrisClaytonDTN

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