Conventional wisdom says “new ground” — land that didn’t quite make the cut when other fields were cleared and planted, sometimes decades ago — is often more productive than the old, at least for the first years it’s in crops.

Mike Taylor cleared some new ground in the area where he and his son, Mike Jr., farm in Phillips County in eastern Arkansas two years ago. The “new” land outproduced some of the Taylors’ other land.

Three generations of Taylors — Mike Sr., Mike Jr. and Wells — pose at their latest enterprise near Helena, Ark. Their cows are grazing a four-way mix of winter covers the Taylors planted to help build soils and their bottom line.

“The new ground is what the old-timers knew really wasn’t good enough to be cleared; the soil type was not as desirable; and it wouldn’t produce as much,” says Mike Sr. “It had been in trees forever, but the yields were better there than the mainstream component of our farm.”

Cover crops to the rescue

Like most growers, the Taylors try to figure out how to improve the productivity of their farming operation. One solution appears to be cover crops with a twist. But first, some background.

For years the Taylors began field preparation for the next year’s crops as soon as they completed harvest. They used a seven-shank boom, a 730 DMI and a Caterpillar 95 to rework fields. “Some years, like this last year, it was so dry, the Cat 85 would just rear up; we couldn’t break the soils,” says Mike Sr.

“We subsoiled every acre, and it was loose. Some years I couldn’t drive the burndown ground rig over it; it was so loose. But that was what we knew,” he adds.

More recently the Taylors have gone to in-row, strip-till-type subsoiler or no subsoiling. After five years of no subsoiling, Mike Jr. was able to push a soil probe 3 to 4 feet into the ground with ease, despite some adverse weather.

A year ago they met with Dave Brandt, who has been farming no-till since 1971 and has been planting cover crops since 1978 on his farm in Ohio.

“We flew to Ohio and had a fascinating visit with Mr. Brandt,” says Mike Sr. “But at the end of the visit, he got into some sort of gibberish about electric fences and cows. And I’m thinking, ‘No, that won’t work.’ ”

Related story: There's never a dull moment when visiting Dave Brandt's farm

Or would it?

The younger Taylor picked out a 150-acre field and planted wheat. Last spring, they harvested the wheat and planted an 85-day corn, a hybrid that is rarely used in the Midsouth. Next, they harvested the corn and planted an unusual blend of cover crop materials.

In fact, it was a 13-way summer grazing mix. The Taylors planted about 40 pounds of seed per acre from the 13-way mix at a cost of about $40 per acre. Within 45 days after planting, some of the plants were 12 to 13 feet tall, despite near-drought conditions.

They cut alleys to divide the fields into 1-acre paddies and to serve as corridors for the high-tensile electric fence that Mike Sr. says, “Somehow followed me home from Ohio.” Typically, they run about 100 head of cattle on the field, allowing them to graze an acre every 24 hours.

Moving the cows takes about three minutes because the cows follow their herders from one paddy to the next when they move the fence. “We feed a little bit of corn to help with our rate of gain,” says Mike Jr. “But they really aren’t interested in the corn that much. What they want to do is eat the new grass.”

The Taylors may move to a more traditional cover crop mix of cereal rye, black oats and radishes. A 1,000-gallon water trailer with a rear-mounted pump provides fresh water to the cows.

“We really haven’t figured out our watering system very well,” says Mike Jr. “The hardest part is getting the water moved to the paddies when it’s wet.”

During last summer’s heat, they took cotton trailers and covered them with a shade cloth. “If it was over 90, we would move the shade with them to different paddies, and they would follow the shade and the water trailer.”

Laws is director of content for sister publication Farm Press.

Related stories: A case for cover crops: Part one and Part two