Cover Crop Seed Sheet
The rate comes from your bag. This sheet scales it, converts the units, and records what actually happened.
BFCBrilliance · bfcbrilliance.com/tools/cover-crop-seed-calculator
The arithmetic and the units
- Seed needed
- area ÷ 1000 x rate x (1 + broadcast extra)
- Bags
- seed ÷ bag size, ROUNDED UP
- 1 acre
- 43,560 sq ft
- Rate per acre
- rate per 1,000 x 43.56
- Per acre → per 1,000
- divide by 43.56
- ⚠ Mixing those units
- is a factor of 43.56
- ⚠ The rate itself
- from YOUR bag, not a table
- Raking or rolling after
- cuts broadcast losses
This sowing
- Date
- Species or mix
- Supplier
- Area
- Rate from the bag
- Units the bag uses
- Broadcast extra
- SEED NEEDED
- Bag size
- BAGS TO BUY
- COST
- Leftover
- Termination plan
What you sowed and how it did
| Season | Species | Rate used | Sown | Stand: thin / right / thick |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Before and after sowing
- Rate read off THIS bag, not last year's species
- Units checked - per 1,000 sq ft or per acre
- Per-acre figure sanity-checked against the bag
- Broadcast increase allowed if not drilling
- Sowing window checked with your extension service
- Termination method decided BEFORE sowing
- Ground raked or rolled after broadcasting
- Leftover sealed and stored cool and dry
- Stand recorded so next year's rate can be adjusted
Per acre and per 1,000 sq ft are 43.56 apart
An acre is 43,560 square feet. A rate of 2 lb per 1,000 sq ft is about 87 lb per acre, and mixing the two produces an answer so far out it is usually obvious - but only if you look. Check the per-acre figure against your bag before ordering.
Decide how it comes out before it goes in
Some cover crops winter-kill and collapse on their own. Others need cutting, digging or smothering, and a few are hard enough to kill that they become the weed problem they were meant to prevent. Read the termination line in the supplier's description before the nitrogen-fixing one.