Justin Gelfius is committed to working with cover crops. But he is also committed to fine-tuning them so that they work in their farming system. He farms with his father, William, near Columbus.

Related: Know which cover crops you can plant late and which you can't

One of his goals most recently has been figuring out how to get cover crops seeded and up and growing quicker in the fall. He has a reason why he wants to get as much growth from a cover crop in the fall as he possibly can.

Different strategy: Justin Gelfius is committed to getting more out of cover crops in the fall so he feels justified in terminating them earlier in the spring.

He related this to a group of no-till farmers and agri-business people learning how to better present their views and communicate their message through the media at a recent training session. The meeting was sponsored by the Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative.

"We are concerned about letting cover crops grow too long in the spring," he explains. He adds that they believe you can run into problems with excess growth in the spring. Their goal in the spring is to get the corn or soybean crop planted.

Traditionally, many cover-crop users have noted that you need to get enough growth out of cover crops in the spring to get value back for your investment. It becomes a balancing act between how soon you kill them in the spring, and how long you let them grow to promote more rooting and biomass production. The downside is that if they grow too much and timing doesn't work out, they could interfere with planting.

"Our idea is to get more value out of cover crops in the fall," Justin says. "If they get a good start and have more time to work in the fall, we feel we can reap many of the benefits then. If we can do that we aren't as concerned about feeling like we have to let them grow longer in the spring just to be sure we get enough benefits back to justify our investment." 

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