The Michigan Forever Green Field Crops farmer group is growing
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EmailOverwintering crops and cover crops are one of the most significant drivers of increased soil health. This new grower group aims to make that work with peer learning and agronomy experts.
Want to grow winter canola? Looking to boost wheat yield and profitability? Trying to figure out how to make cover crops work? Extending crop rotation with an overwintering crop has the potential to increase soil health, distribute fieldwork over the course of the season and improve whole-farm profitability. You can learn from farmers and agronomists with years of experience on how to make overwintering crops pay on your operation by joining the Michigan Forever Green Field Crops farmer group!
MI Forever Green has recently been awarded two more years of funding through financial support in part by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) with the goal of creating farmer groups looking to keep farmland green all year round.
How to join
Join our email list or email Christine Charles at charl122@msu.edu.
Benefits of joining
- Free soil health testing - see more details below
- Support for on-farm soil health and crop production research
- Farmer-to-farmer consultation
Why is the group soil health testing?
Beyond improving winter crop productivity and profitability, the group is also exploring how winter and cover crops affect soil health across the rotation. The following case study compares soil health samples collected in June 2026 from fields with similar soils but different management histories. Field 1 was in a corn-soybean rotation with conservation tillage and no winter or cover crops. Fields 2 and 3 were in a corn-soybean-wheat rotation with cover crops seeded after wheat. At sampling, Field 1 was planted to soybean, Field 2 to corn, and Field 3 to wheat.
The soil health measurements of soil protein and permanganate oxidizable carbon (POXC) varied across the fields, as seen in Table 1. These measurements represent different parts of the total organic matter pool:
- Soil protein measures a large nitrogen pool inside soil organic matter
- POXC is a more stable pool of carbon that is less accessible to microbes and can serve as an early indicator of carbon accrual
When compared to the benchmarks developed by Dr. Sprunger’s Soil Health and Ecosystem Ecology lab, fields with overwintering crops, cover crops, and no tillage in the rotation outperformed the field in corn-soy rotation with no cover crops and some tillage. Fall samples and yield comparisons will be taken from the corn fields to help further evaluate the success of this management change. This grower plans to continue evaluating how soil health impacts his fertility program. On-farm work like this one is a great example of how to use soil health testing to make informed management decisions.
|
|
Management History |
2026 Crop (soil sampled June 2026) |
Soil Moisture (%) |
Protein |
POXC (mg/kg soil) |
|
Field 1 |
Corn-Soy no cover crops |
Soybean |
9 |
3.2 (Low) |
399 (Low) |
|
Field 2 |
Corn-Soy-Wheat with cover crop |
Corn |
14 |
5 (Average) |
511 (High) |
|
Field 3 |
Corn-Soy-Wheat with cover crop |
Wheat |
10 |
4.8 (Average) |
588 (High) |
Table 1: Protein and permanganate oxidizable carbon (POXC) are key soil health metrics in the Sprunger lab used to understand soil function. Field 2 and Field 3 (overwintering crops, cover crops, and no tillage) had greater values for protein and POXC than Field 1 (corn-soy rotation with no cover crops and some tillage).
How to request a soil health sample (deadline October 31)
Request yours by October 31, 2026, by filling out the e-mail list form or e-mailing Christine Charles at charl122@msu.edu. Select two fields with similar soil types, one where you harvested wheat or canola in 2026 and one where you harvested corn or soybeans in 2026. Not sure where you want to sample? Reach out and we can help you find the sites.
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With support from the MDARD Regenerative Farmer Network Grant and in partnership with MSU Extension, ADM, MI Wheat Program and the Great Lakes Yield Enhancement Network (YEN), the network’s main objectives are to promote farmer-to-farmer learning, develop informational resources for canola and wheat farmers, and to identify on-farm research questions to improve management recommendations for growing overwintering crops in Michigan.
