Bill Buessing

Kansas no-tiller and “cover crops addict.” Operates a 440-acre farm in Axtell, Marshall County, Kansas, integrating diverse cover crop blends, no-till cash crops, and a growing cattle herd. Every acre has a crop or cover crop growing at all times, year-round since 2013.

Profile

Field Value
Location Axtell, Marshall County, Kansas, USA
Farm size 440 acres
No-till Continuous
Cover crops Every acre, all year since 2013
Cover crop species tested 40+ (experimental plot)
Cash crops 20% corn, 20% soybeans, 20% winter cereals (mainly rye)
Grazing 25% spring/summer covers; 5% perennial covers; 10% ex-CRP ground
Cattle 40 cow-calf pairs + replacement heifers + 40–50 grass-finished + 100 stockers

[Source: dd-issue-01, 2026-04-11]

Key Principle

“You have to change your mindset if you’re going to make cover crops work. Implementing cover crops is a process that does not always show immediate rewards.”

From 2011 aerial photograph of farm during winter: all fields bare — “from September to April, there was nothing growing — that is 8 months of carbon-capturing potential wasted.”

[Source: dd-issue-01, 2026-04-11]

Cover Crop System

Cereal Rye — “The Silver Bullet”

“Cereal rye is the closest thing to a silver bullet that we have found.”

  • Largest root system of any winter cereal
  • Breaks up hardpans
  • Uses excess N from previous crop; stores N for future crops
  • Adds carbon; builds organic matter
  • Suppresses weeds
  • Keeps soil cooler in summer → benefits soil biology and subsequent soybeans
  • Seeded at ~50–60 lb/ac

Effect on soybean yield: +3–4 bushels/ac since 2007 vs no-till alone.

[Source: dd-issue-01, 2026-04-11]

Termination Timing (Critical)

  • Terminate cereal rye the same day as planting soybeans
  • Do NOT terminate before planting then wait — wet soil under residue causes establishment problems
  • For corn: apply liquid N in spring with rolling cutter; sidedress later

Multi-Species Blends

Fall blend (18 species), ~$45.72/ac:

  • Primarily: spring oats, cowpeas, spring peas
  • Smaller amounts: sunn hemp, Bruits hybrid forage sorghum, Mancan buckwheat, hybrid pearl millet, sunflowers
  • Estimated forage: 3,878 lb/ac on 72 growing days
  • Seeding rate: ~1.5–2 million seeds/ac

Summer blend, ~$71.30/ac:

  • Grazing corn, cowpeas, sunn hemp, hybrid sorghum-sudangrass, mung beans, Mancan buckwheat, sunflowers, mustard, hybrid forage collards
  • Estimated forage: 13,401 lb/ac on 106 growing days
  • Seeding rate: ~700,000–800,000 seeds/ac

[Source: dd-issue-01, 2026-04-11]

Measured Results

Cattle Performance on Covers

  • 78 head (400–800 lb) on 30 acres of cover crops over 25.5 days
  • Weight gain: 2.78 lb/head/day
  • Beef production: 180 lb beef/acre
  • Supplement: none during trial period
  • After 3.5-inch rain event: sprayed soybeans the next day — “virtually no tracks in the soil”

Soil Health

  • Organic matter improved by 1% in 3 years (intensified cover crop rotations)
  • Haney soil health test (Oct 2015, 14 samples from 6 farms):
  • 9 samples: 15–20 score (“very good”)
  • 2 samples: >20 score (“excellent”)

Fertiliser Savings

  • N application: ~6 gallons liquid N/ac (well below neighbour rates)
  • “I use less fertiliser than my neighbours and I am building my soils”

[Source: dd-issue-01, 2026-04-11]

Grazing Rules for Cover Crops

  • Graze only ~35% of the cover; leave remainder for soil cover and biology
  • Include species cattle won’t eat in the mix (maintains ground cover)
  • Limiting grazing to 35% reduces harvest efficiency by 30–40% but preserves soil protection and nutrition
  • Rotate cattle through paddocks daily in warm months; up to 1 week in larger areas during busy season
  • Strip grazing: ~100-foot strips with plastic-coated electric fence (ATV-moveable)

[Source: dd-issue-01, 2026-04-11]

Year-Round Forage Calendar

Period Forage source
Winter Winter cover blend
Spring Cool-season pastures (after leaving winter cover)
Summer Summer cover blend (planted May)
Late summer Warm-season pastures
Autumn August-planted cover blend
Winter Post-harvest blend → repeat

Perennial Cover

  • Perennial blend planted August 2010: meadow brome, tall fescue, orchardgrass, timothy, meadow fescue, festulolium, pubescent wheatgrass, intermediate wheatgrass, grazing alfalfa, birdsfoot trefoil, big bluestem
  • Estimated saving: $50/ac/year in feed costs from this field alone

Seeding Method

  • Landoll drill for cover crops
  • Works with Green Cover Seed (Bladen, Nebraska) for custom mixes using SMARTmix Calculator (70+ species database)

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