Legume Cover Crops
OVERVIEW OF LEGUME COVER CROPS
Commonly used legume cover crops include:
Winter annuals, such as crimson clover, hairy vetch, field peas, subterranean clover and many others
Legume cover crops are used to:
Legumes vary widely in their ability to prevent erosion, suppress weeds and add organic matter to the soil. In general, legume cover crops do not scavenge N as well as grasses. If you need a cover crop to take up excess nutrients after manure or fertilizer applications, a grass, a brassica or a mixture is usually a better choice.
Winter-annual legumes, while established in the fall, usually produce most of their biomass and N in spring. Winter-annual legumes must be planted earlier than cereal crops in order to survive the winter in many regions. Depending on your climate, spring management of legumes will often involve balancing early planting of the cash crop with waiting to allow more biomass and N production by the legume.
Perennial or biennial legumes can fit many different niches, as described in greater detail in the individual sections for those cover crops. Sometimes grown for a short period between cash crops, these forage crops also can be used for more than one year and often are harvested for feed during this time. They can be established along with—or overseeded into—other crops such as wheat or oats, then be left to grow after cash crop harvest and used as a forage. Here they are functioning more as a rotation crop than a cover crop, but as such provide many benefits including erosion and weed control, organic matter and N production. They also can break weed, disease and insect cycles.
Summer-annual use of legume crops includes, in colder climates, the use of the winter-annual crops listed above, as well as warm-season legumes such as cowpeas. Grown as summer annuals, these crops produce N and provide ground cover for weed and erosion control, as well as other benefits of growing cover crops. Establishment and management varies widely depending on climate, cropping system and the legume itself. These topics will be covered in the individual sections for each legume.
Legumes are generally lower in carbon and higher in nitrogen than grasses. This lower C:N ratio results in faster breakdown of legume residues. Therefore, the N and other nutrients contained in legume residues are usually released faster than from grasses. Weed control by legume residues may not last as long as for an equivalent amount of grass residue. Legumes do not increase soil organic matter as much as grasses.
Mixtures of legume and grass cover crops combine the benefits of both, including biomass production, N scavenging and additions to the system, as well as weed and erosion control. Some cover crop mixtures are described in the individual cover crop sections.
