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SOIL HEALTH IN PRACTICE - REAL SOLUTIONS FROM REAL FARMERS

Relay Cropping so the consistency and lack of damage is critical from seed-
ing to harvest on crops. With the relay cropping system
As ag producers, we should always be looking for ways to use we are able to consistently grow food grade wheat without
our assets (land, equipment, and time) more efficiently and fungicide in Iowa – something we were told wasn’t possible
increase profits while protecting the environment. Relay crop- when we started growing cereals.
ping is one way that a growing number of innovative growers
are doing this. Relay cropping is essentially a version of double
cropping, where the second crop is planted while the first crop
is still growing, rather than waiting until after harvest. Both
crops share a portion of the prime growing season, increasing
solar radiation and heat available to each and allowing two
crops in one year on more northern regions. Loran Steinlage
from West Union, IA is one of the leading proponents of this
movement and writes here about his experiences:

In 2013, I was getting very comfortable with innerseeding*
covers into V4 corn and started thinking of how these prin-
ciples could translate to the rest of our rotation? I wanted
to bring a small grain back to my rotation, but in my area
of high land rent I knew that wheat alone would not pay
the bills and we are too far north to double crop. As I was Over the years, we’ve learned what diversity of plant species
researching, I found other innovators both doing wheat and can do for us. Innerseeding and cover crops boost benefi-
soybeans in a “relay cropping” system. cial organisms which eat the bad organisms, and diversity
I started with small plots and of plants growing together (covers or relay crops) actually
began focusing on the equip- confuse a pest’s sense of sight and smell. If we can maintain
ment side and quickly realized a residue cover with minimal soil disturbance, we will not
the equipment I was using for have weeds, either; bare dirt
innerseeding would work for equals weeds in our world.
planting the relay wheat and Our soils have aggregation
soybeans. We liked what we like you wouldn’t believe. We
saw and scaled up quickly be- have textbook healthy soil –
Photos by Loran Steinlage basics, it just made sense. Then or black cottage cheese, and
it looks like coffee grounds
cause once we understood the
each shovelful contains 16 to
we had the crazy idea to drill
20 earthworms. We are at the
buckwheat where the cereal
was and it provides us with
respiration soil tests and in-
weed control and an easy companion to the soybeans. We upper levels of the microbial
harvest the soybeans and buckwheat together and separate filtration tests on our farm
them with a grain cleaner. showed 1” of water penetra-
tion in eight seconds.
One of the biggest advantages during the last couple of wet
years is that the cereals tend to help the beans through the
early wet periods. Our relay soybeans have been our high- * Loran found research from the 1900’s on the concept of “in-
est yielding beans the last three years running! We are now nerseeding” (“interseeding”) so he honors that spelling out of
respect to our forefathers.
trying spring malt barley and spring oats which have ad-
vantages when the previous fall was so wet or late that we
could not establish a winter cereal. By Loran Steinlage • West Union, IA
For harvesting, we bought a row crop head so we do as little You can follow Loran Steinlage
damage as possible to the soy during cereal harvest. We are and FloLo Farms on Twitter.
either going for seed quality or food grade on most crops,

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