6. Where do cover crops fit in modern organic farming systems?
7. Cover crops are not the missing puzzle piece(s)
in current crop rotations!
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/tcoa/files/breakcrops_orgagr.pdf
8. Overview of book contents
• Problems and opportunities for over 500 crop
sequences
• Characteristics of more than 60 crops and 70 weeds
• Crop diseases hosted by over 80 weed species
• Modes of transmission for 250 diseases of 24 crops
• Thirteen sample four- and five-year vegetable and
Rotations
grain crop rotations Managing Crop Rotation Chart
should evolve
with key tasks & steps
not revolve
•Sample worksheets and calculations
• Step-by-step procedure for determining crop rotation
plans
9. Overview of book contents
• Problems and opportunities for over 500 crop
sequences
• Characteristics of more than 60 crops and 70 weeds
• Crop diseases hosted by over 80 weed species
• Modes of transmission for 250 diseases of 24 crops
• Thirteen sample four- and five-year vegetable and
grain crop rotations Managing Crop Rotation Chart
with key tasks & steps
•Sample worksheets and calculations
• Step-by-step procedure for determining crop rotation
plans
10. Excellent information on integrating cover crops with agronomic crops
http://ohioline.osu.edu/sag-fact/pdf/0009.pdf
11. Conservation Augmentation
3 broad goals of
Activation
ecological
& deactivation
management
underpin effective organic
farming systems
13. Terminating spring planted oats with a soil finisher
~ 3 weeks before planting corn
biological activation (enhanced nutrient cycling)
& deactivation (weed suppression)
14. Cover crops have many effects!
Feed
livestock
Cover
Crops
Adapted from Magdoff and Weil (2004)
15. Not all are positive
Host
pests
Tie up N
? ?
Become
a weed
Interfere w/
equipment
performance
Suppress
crop growth
Cover
Crops Dry out soil
Prevent excessively
soil
Add cost drying
Increase
management
Adapted from Magdoff and Weil (2004)
16. Avoid haphazard use of cover crops
What am I
supposed to do
now?
Develop a plan to increase beneficial effects
while minimizing negative effects
17. Matching specific objectives with species
Grazing
brassicas, clovers, small grains, a. ryegrass, sorghum-sudan
Nutrient scavenging/cycling
brassicas, small grains, annual ryegrass
Bio-drilling
brassicas, sugarbeet, sunflower,
sorghum-sudan sweet clover, alfalfa
N-fixation
clovers, vetches, lentil, winter pea, chickling vetch, sun hemp, cowpea,
soybean
Bio-activation/fumigation
brassicas, sorghum-sudan, sun hemp, sesame
Weed suppression
brassicas, sorghum-sudan, cereal rye, buckwheat
18. Have you tried any forage brassicas?
#1
Ethiopian opportunity to
cabbage Winfred
make cover
crops pay
http://www.jennifermackenzie.co.uk/2005/12/brassicas.html
Hunter
19. Historically crop rotations
revolved around LEGUMES
20. Do all legumes add N to the soil?
Soybean seeds
often contain
>25% more N than
was fixed within
their nodules
21. Typical amounts of nitrogen
fixed by legumes (lbs/ac/yr)
Alfalfa 150-300+
Soybeans 150-250
Hairy vetch 75-200
Red clover 75-150
Other annual forage
50-150
legumes
22. 133 lbs of K/ac 52 lbs of Ca/ac
Only legumes ―fix‖ nitrogen
Hairy Vetch
3,260 lbs of DM/ac
141 lbs of N/ac
All cover crops capture and recycle plant essential nutrients
18 lbs of P/ac 18 lbs of Mg/ac
25. What to Look For in A Cover Crop
• Fast germination and emergence
• Competitiveness
• Tolerance to adverse climatic & soil
conditions
• Ease of suppression/residue
management
• Fertility/soil quality benefits
• Low-cost
26. Additional considerations
How will I seed the cover crop?
What will soil temperature and moisture conditions be like?
What weather extremes and field traffic must it tolerate?
Will it winterkill in my area?
Should it winterkill to meet my goals?
What kind of regrowth can I expect?
How will I kill it and plant into it?
Will I have the time to make this work?
What’s my contingency plan—and risks—if the
cover crop doesn’t establish or doesn’t die on schedule?
Do I have the needed equipment and labor?
Start planning now for next fall!
32. Hairy vetch can be successfully planted after
wheat harvest. On the two occasions (out of 18
site-years of the WI Cropping System Trial)
when the red clover failed to establish well,
hairy vetch produced an average of 115 lbs N/a
providing an excellent ―back-up plan‖.
July/August plantings of vetch or
other cover crops are riskier than
frost seeding clover.
33. Sweet
clover
Mustard is not the only
option for frost
seeding
35. Klaas and Mary Martens,
organic innovators in
Central NY State, are
reporting excellent results
with frost-seeded
confectionary mustard
ahead of dry beans
36. Mustard variety trial at the WIU Organic Research farm
(Spring 2011)
Pacific Gold IdaGold
slower to mature but matures faster but
more biomass less biomass
46. Are you familiar with the fence post principle?
Zone of maximum biological
activity and rapid residue decay
Deeper burial does not optimize decay but sends weed
seeds into deep dormancy and brings deeply dormant
weed seeds to the surface where they germinate slowly
47. Where are the soybeans??
Traditional organic weed management
often comes up short during wet years
A strong stand of cereal rye was incorporated
~ 2 weeks before these soybeans were planted
48. JD 730 Air-Disk drill on Jack Erisman’s farm in Pana, IL
Jack uses this rig to drill soybeans on 6" rows (~ 280,000/ac)
while also dropping about 2 bushel of rye and some
micronutrients