When is a good time to change your cover crop routine? According to Carter Morgan, Cayuga, Ind., an early harvest could create the perfect environment for testing out new cover crop combinations on some acreage.
The positives of planting cover crops include supporting the local environment and making crops more productive and climate-resilient. Thanks to cover crops, no-till and crop rotation, Willott says his farm still had a fairly good harvest despite this year’s drought, extreme heat and flooding.
Doug Bos is Assistant Director of Rock County Soil and Water Conservation District, where he has worked for 27 years. When he talks about cover crops, he is not only talking of programs, he is speaking of personal experience.
Cover crops reduce sediment loss and total phosphorus loss from no-till corn and soybean fields, according to a study published in the Journal of Environmental Management.
According to a new study published by scientists at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, more than a third of farmland in the U.S. Corn Belt has completely lost its carbon-rich topsoil to erosion.
In humid climates, there is a high risk of topsoil loss from erosion on bare soil as well as nitrogen from fertilizers leaking or leaching from the soil into water sources, which can cause groundwater pollution. This is especially true in the fall, after potato harvest, and in the spring, due to melting snow. Read more in this story from Potato News Today.
The National Strip-Tillage Conference returns August 8-9, 2024!Build and refine your strip-till system with dozens of new ideas and connections at the 11th Annual National Strip-Tillage Conference in Madison, Wis. Aug. 8-9, 2024. Experience an energizing 2-day agenda featuring inspiring general session speakers, expert-led Strip-Till Classrooms and collaborative Strip-Till Roundtables. Plus, Certified Crop Adviser credits will be offered.
Georgetown, Del., no-tiller Jay Baxter was planning on conducting a cover crop experiment with oats, but when Mother Nature got in the way, he quickly pivoted to another idea for a different type of cover crop experiment.