Cooperators’ trial with soybeans planted green, legume covers and strip-till corn in Hayward

Published 8:00 pm Friday, September 8, 2023

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Tracy Skaar grows corn, soybeans, oats and hay with his son, Mic, on a combined 850 acres in Hayward.

Half of their beans are no-tilled with a cereal rye cover crop, and their oats are underseeded with a mix of red clover and non-dormant alfalfa.

This year, he is involved in a PFI Cooperators’ Program trial testing termination dates after planting soybeans into green rye cover crops.

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The Skaars will host an agricultural field day as part of Practical Farmers of Iowa from 10 a.m. to noon Sept. 18 at 18809 810th Ave. in Hayward.

Lunch will follow the field day.

Attendees can RSVP by visiting the or calling Practical Farmers of Iowa at 515-232-5661.

Over 40 farms across Iowa, as well as Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin, are opening their farm gates this year to share their knowledge on a range of agricultural topics, from relay cropping to double-cropping, sheep shearing to soil health, orcharding to oxbows and more.