As soil health improves one of the results is that cover crop biomass naturally increases. Heavy biomass can be more challenging to manage at crop planting time. Modifying your planter configuration can make planting into heavy residue much easier and get your cash crop off to a great start. Farmer Jimmy Howard had grown corn, wheat and soybeans in the Piedmont of North Carolina until his passing in 2026. Jimmy was a life-long advocate and innovator in no-till grain crop production and cover cropping, and a NC corn and soybean yield contest winner. Extension Agent, Jenny Carleo, spoke with Jimmy and his son, Branson, last summer to learn more about how they are able to get uniform germination in their crops, even when no-till planting into cover crop residue in heavy clay soils. Here is the original interview and a written summary below:

1. Initial Planter Set Up

How do you set your planter up for success?

Set up the planter according to the manual specifications when it comes to planter height and toolbar height. Set the down-pressure adequate for the system.

2. Row Cleaners and Coulters

Do you use row cleaners?

We had row cleaners, but they do get wrapped up in a tangled up a mess so we removed them. We do not run row cleaners or no-till coulters, we just run double disc openers. This concentrates the force on creating the seed furrow instead of distributing the weight across other things. This concentrated force helps us get good penetration into harder soil. You do wear your blades faster and need to be sure that they are still the right diameter before each planting season starts.

We do use row cleaners when planting our double crop soybeans into wheat residue. We use them to move the straw out of the way. But in cover crops, we found out the less you have is better.

3. Gauge Wheels

What type of gauge wheels do you use?

We have clay soils, so we have moved to gauge wheels with a reduced inner diameter that have an indentation. The clay will stick to the blades and will heave up, the indentation allows it to heave and then breaks up the sidewall compaction. With the reduced inner diameter gauge wheels and the way it crumbles the soil up, we usually run it in the lowest notch for the least down pressure.

4. Closing Wheels

Which closing wheels work the best for you?

We use cast iron closing wheels. They don't drag up or get tangled up like a spoked wheel. We offset them, where one closing wheel is a little ahead of the other one. So, as it comes up on the seed trench, it pushes one side in, then it pushes the other side in. It helps with that sidewall compaction.

5. Residue Management

What are some things you do to avoid wrapping when you have a lot of biomass?

If your cover crop is not too thick and it's standing vertically, the row unit will just work its way through there and not drag up. You may get some stuff hanging on the closing wheels, but it's not a big deal. We have had times where we thought we needed to roll the cover down and we did. We use a cultipacker and we run it after we plant. Usually, we try to keep everything as vertical as possible.

6. Crop Seeding Rates

Do you need to increase your seeding rates when you're planting into a heavy cover crop?

No, the last couple of years we've decreased our seeding rates

7. Cover Crop Seeding Rates

What about seeding rates on your cover crop?

We go low. We spread with a pull type spreader, the lowest we can get is 50 lbs. I like to walk out in the cover crop and when I look towards the ground, I can actually see it. If the cover crop is planted on time we usually do not see a problem getting it established, so we have lowered our seeding rates to the lowest recommended.

We are grateful that Jimmy was able to pass along this valuable information to us. He was always willing to help and support other farmers and is greatly missed.

“Jimmy was a good farmer, a great man and a fine friend.” - Philip Sloop, President, NC Soybean Producers Association