As part of the Hendricks County Soil and Water Conservation District's (SWCD) 2008 Clean Water Indiana (CWI) Conservation Marketing Initiative Grant, the District held an annual rye grass workshop on January 19, 2009 at the Hendricks County 4-H Fairgrounds and Conference Center.
At this workshop we announced plans to offer a cost-share program to plant annual rye grass as a cover crop in the fall. We gathered contact information from those interested at the meeting. In our spring newsletter we announced the planned cost-share and asked interested landowners to contact the District office. Approximately 1,300 newsletters were mailed in February 2009. We set a goal of 500 acres. With just the interest shown from the rye grass workshop we had 2,350 acres proposed for fall planting.
Seven farmers aerially seeded 439 acres on Sept. 15, 2009. Our goal was 500 acres, split between drilled and aerial seeding. Because the aerial seeding application rate is higher, we could not reach the 500 acre goal, but did exceed the 250 acres for each type of seeding proposed in our grant application. Cover crops were planted in all but one of the watersheds we identified as a target watershed in our grant application for 2009.
We had a small number of applicants, but this allowed everyone who applied to participate with at least 50 acres of annual rye grass. We tried to keep the application simple with minimal restrictions. The goal was to encourage anyone considering annual rye grass as a cover crop to see the program as a viable option.
We offered cover crop cost share again in 2010 using CWI funds. We opened the program to the entire county, with priority given to new participants and those outside the Eagle Creek and Big Walnut priority watershed areas. Also, any cover crop listed in the Field Office Technical Guide was eligible, not just annual rye grass.
Following the success of the 2009 program, we held another cover crop workshop in February 2010. Twenty-eight people from nine Indiana counties attended. A round-table discussion with experienced cover crop users was part of the program. In August we co-hosted a field day with the Boone and Putnam SWCDs featuring cover crops, along with timber stand improvement, reducing compaction and nitrogen testing. Eighty-six people attended from six Indiana counties.
Ten farmers applied, but three did not get any cover crops planted due to the dry weather. We had set a limit of 50 acres, but many of the fields were over 50 acres. We distributed the funds based on the total field acres. A total of 396 acres were planted in a combination of annual rye grass, winter rye, and tillage radish.
In 2011 we are working with the Morgan SWCD to promote cover crops as part of a conservation system. We have a series of three workshops planned for June, July and August and will again be offering cost share for cover crops using CWI funds.