Cover Crops

Authored by Eric Vukicevich, Tom Lowery, Pat Bowen, José Ramon Úrbez-Torres & Miranda HartA REVIEW Published in Agronomy for Sustainable Development volume 36, Article number: 48 (2016) Abstract Commercial perennial agriculture is prone to declining productivity due to negative plant-soil feedback. An alternative to costly and environmentally harmful conventional treatment such as soil fumigation could …

Cover Crops To Increase Soil Microbial Diversity And Mitigate Decline In Perennial Agriculture. A REVIEW Read More »

Separation of crop and livestock production can degrade soil and other natural resources while reducing economic returns. Additionally, the conversion of grassland to cropland has put a strain on forage for cattle. Grazing cover crops can be a potential option to re-integrate crops with livestock production and reverse the adverse effects of separating crops and …

Does Grazing Cover Crops Negatively Impact Soil And Crop Yields? Read More »

Cover and catch cropping may work well for many managing lighter and erosion-prone soils but for those on heavier and more difficult ground they remain very far from the answer to any sort of maiden’s prayer. The right covers managed in the right way can help structure even the most challenging soils. However, in many …

Putting Covers Into Context With Understanding Read More »

Andrew and Sam Melton, new to the AHDB Monitor Farm programme this year, are looking at how to make cover cropping and direct drilling work on their soils at Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Farming silty clay loam soils and with a keen interest in farming sustainably, whilst improving yields and productivity, Andrew and Sam Melton have kept …

Will It Work For Us? Read More »

Written by Dr. Bob Hartzler and Meaghan Anderson of Iowa State University One important benefit of cover crops to our production system is providing an alternative selection pressure on weed populations. Cereal rye has the best potential to suppress weeds because it accumulates more biomass than other cover crop species. Weed suppression is closely related …

Weed Suppression With Cover Crops: It’s All About Biomass Read More »

AHDB’s Technical Knowledge Exchange Manager, Harry Henderson, takes a look at the results from the recently published Maxi Cover Crop research findings and discusses what lessons you can take-away for your farm system. Cover crops. You’ve read the articles of untold benefits of soil restructuring, drainage improving nutrient building, weed suppressing, disease controlling, yield enhancing, …

Cover Crops On Trial Read More »

Written by James Warne of Soil First Farming In my article in the last edition of this humble magazine I discussed basic cover cropping strategy, in this article I willcover some of the frequent questions which have been posed to me since that article. I accept that to many this mayseem obvious but if you …

Cover Crop Strategy 2 The Sequel Read More »