Cereal rye is an excellent winter cover crop that rapidly provides ground cover to prevent soil erosion. It has deep roots that help prevent soil compaction and scavenge nutrients from the soil profile. Rye also helps control weeds when used as a mulch in no-till systems. Rye is easy to grow and establishes well with seeding rates of 60 to 200 pounds per acre. It can be killed with mowing or herbicides to allow no-till planting of other crops while providing weed suppression for about 30 days as a surface mulch.