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 …
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, …
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 …
Written by Ian Wilkinson from Cotswold Seeds Companion cropping can sometimes be a difficult term to define, but a learned fellow farmer, Andy Howard, describes it as growing two or more crops together, and that’s a definition I like, because it means diversity within plant species (which I firmly believe in), encompassing complex herbal leys …
There have only been a few times in my life I have been truly wow’d at an agricultural show. But I certainly have one more to add to the list after visiting the John Deere stand at Agritechnica 2019. As always, the stand was big, and we were very lucky to have Nathan Kramer from …
By Phil Jarvis, head of farming at the GWCT Allerton Project, as based on information found on Agricology (www.agricology.co.uk ).Life is all about choices, some turn out well and others can fire a whole load of challenges your way. The same is true aswe develop our agricultural businesses from dipping a toe in the water …
Written by James Warne of Soil First Farming A cover crop can be anything that is not intended to be harvested. It is simply there to provide soil cover, lightinterception, push roots in the soil and carbon sequestration. If you are following a true Conservation Agriculture (CA) system, cover cropping is an essential part of …
Cover Crop Strategy Getting It Right For Success. Read More »
Written by Denise Attaway, College of Agriculture, Clemson University, South Carolina South Carolina soils are old and weathered, and Clemson University researchers are working with the Richland Soil andWater District and the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service to teach thepublic how growing cover crops can help rejuvenate and put some life …
Cover Crops Can Increase Soil Moisture By As Much As 10 Percent Read More »
FOUR ISSUES TO CONSIDER You probably know that crop rotation is a good thing. Growing different crops back to back provides several benefits,such as preventing pests and disease, improving soil health and reducing fertilizer inputs, all of which can boost yourcrop yields and your bottom line. By adding cover crops to the mix, you’re diversifying …
