By Glen Arnold and Kyle Verhoff et.al
Following wheat harvest is a great window to get field work started and apply manure to farm fields. We can do a few things to best capture and utilize the nutrients from our manure, such as incorporating during application or as soon as possible after. Another great tool to capture the nutrients is to utilize cover crops. Many of our cover crops have the added benefits of aiding in weed control and possible usage as a forage.
Both solid and liquid manure contains ammonium nitrogen that cover crops can utilize for growth. This ammonia nitrogen is often lost when manure is applied to warm soils in August and September as soil bacteria converts the nitrogen to a more leachable form. If cover crops can uptake the nitrogen, then less nitrogen is lost to the environment.
Source : osu.edu