Herbicides and cover crops for improved corn establishment

覆盖作物面临的一个挑战是在不降低主要作物产量的情况下最大限度地促进它们的生长。例如，推迟黑麦覆盖作物的终止和种植绿色作物可以最大限度地提高生物量，但可能会影响玉米的生长。多变的、往往是糟糕的玉米形成被归因于黑麦化感作用、氮素捕获或增加的根病等原因。另一个没有考虑的因素是，在绿色黑麦覆盖作物存在的情况下出现的玉米植株可能会受到影响，因为绿色组织反射的光发生了变化。另一种需要检查的覆盖作物的方法是，在玉米间作时，不同物种的建立是可变的，这可能是因为在出苗前或出苗后早期使用了残留的除草剂。了解哪些玉米除草剂有足够的残留影响覆盖作物，并确定物种对特定产品的敏感性，将有助于优化间作。该项目是与安大略省谷物农场主和安大略省农业、食品和农村事务部合作开发的，将为加拿大各地的农业生产者提供与覆盖作物相关的改进工具和知识，使其能够优化实践，从而提高经济效益和环境效益。此外，这一合作项目开发的知识将有助于为政策提供信息，因为它涉及到复盖作物。

One challenge with cover crops is to maximise their growth without reducing the yield of the main crops. For example, delaying termination of a rye cover crop and planting green maximizes biomass production but may affect corn establishment. Variable, often poor corn establishment has been attributed to causes such as rye allelopathy, nitrogen capture or increased root diseases. Another factor that has not been considered is the possibility that corn plants emerging in the presence of a green rye cover crop may be impacted because of altered light being reflected by the green tissues.Another approach to cover crops that warrants examinations is the variable establishment of various species when interseeded into corn which may be due to the use of residual herbicides in PRE- or early POST-emergence. Knowing which corn herbicides have enough residual to impact cover crops and determining species sensitivity to specific products would allow for optimisation of interseeding. This project, developed in collaboration with Grain Farmers of Ontario and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs, will provide agricultural producers across Canada with improved tools and knowledge related to cover crop that will allow to optimize practices which will result in improved economical and environmental benefits. In addition the knowledge developed by this collaborative project will help inform policy as it relates to cover crops.