Chris Teachout compares his cover crop philosophy to taking a new gun out on a bear hunt: No hunter uses a new gun on the big hunt without practicing with it first to work out all the kinks.

In the same fashion, Teachout says growers should experiment with cover crops on their own operations, continuously adjusting for increased returns and improved soil health.

“That is how I learn,” he says. “Then I can tweak as I go along.”

Teachout’s 1,800-acre operation near Shenandoah in southwestern Iowa focuses on corn and soybeans, but with a cover crop twist that has not only increased yields but also decreased water and nutrient run-off, hiked up organic matter and substantially reduced nitrogen (N) requirements.

Past is Future

Teachout says cover crops aren’t new to his family, recalling how they aerial seeded in the mid-1980s to provide winter forage for their farrow-to-finish and cow-calf operations. He even remembers reading a 1910 farming guide that recommended interseeding rapeseed, cowpeas or wheat in between wide corn rows.

“We either forgot about these concepts or dismissed them,” Teachout says. “Why did we not stick with that?”

The last of Teachout’s family livestock operations ended in…