What is a cover crop?
A cover, or nurse crop is a seed which is mixed in and put down with your regular seed which grows very quickly and helps control the soil while the permanent grass gets established. Brown Top (or Pearl) Millet is generally used in the warmer spring and summer months. For the cooler, or winter months, we use Passerel Rye for this same purpose. Passerel Rye produces better forage than standard rye, so it is better for pastures. Standard rye is used for winter lawn applications. The cover crop is also quite helpful in that because of the fast growth, it enables horses to be put back on the pasture much sooner. The horses will eat the longer nurse crop grass first, enabling the slower-growing permanent grass to become more firmly established.
