I noticed these recent posts on No-Till Farmer’s website - growers recognizing the value of cover crops to prevent erosion. Note that in the second case, he’s using cover crops on waterways, as well as on crop lands.
Dan Gillespie is a no-tiller at Meadow Grove, Neb., and state NRCS no-till specialist. At this time, [...]
Continue reading about Annual Ryegrass and other Cover Crops - Erosion Control Plus
A grower from Kentucky wrote recently about his use of annual ryegrass as a cover crop:
I think one of the keys to winter survival of Ryegrass is to NOT put nitrogen on it in the fall. Nitrogen causes a plant to take on a lot of water. What happens when water freezes? It expands and [...]
Continue reading about Nitrogen Use with Annual Ryegrass in the Fall - To do or Not to do?
Last fall, me and a couple of others planted annual ryegrass as a cover crop in small, no-till test plots about 40 miles NW of Indianapolis, with the idea of testing, this spring, what the Nitrogen content would be in the top growth, as well as the Nitrogen/carbon ratio. The idea is to quantify how much [...]
Continue reading about Testing Annual Ryegrass for Uptake of Nitrogen and Impact on Soil Carbon
This post came from “Go Green Toolshed,” a blog on the virtues and mechanics of organic farming. It seemed particularly on target with this segment talking about benefits of no-till farming and its relationship to the carbon dioxide cycle:
The land-based carbon cycle works as plants take CO2 out of the atmosphere and convert it to [...]
Continue reading about Organic farming depends on cover crops and no-till
Continuous No-Till and Cover Crops – Boosting Soil Organic Matter, Carbon, and Crop Yields
Since 1969, select farm plots at the University of Illinois have been in continuous no-till. In that time, the measure of organic matter has been boosted three-fold – from about 1 percent to 3.2 percent, without use of cover crops. In the [...]
Continuous No-Till and Cover Crops – Boosting Soil Organic Matter, Carbon, and Crop Yields
Since 1969, select farm plots at the University of Illinois have been in continuous no-till. In that time, the measure of organic matter has been boosted three-fold – from about 1 percent to 3.2 percent, without use of cover crops. In the [...]
