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 [...]
The value of cover crops…well, they used to say the value was inestimable. That’s not true anymore, as thousands of farmers discover that no-till and cover crops are as good for the bank account as they are for the soil.
When you plant annual ryegrass in the fall, early rains get the seed established and roots [...]
Continue reading about Annual Ryegrass - The Story You Can’t See
In a blog post in Organic Life Style Magazine, the author provoked lots of discussion based on this comment:
While conventional farming typically depletes soil organic matter, organic farming builds it through the use of composted animal manures and cover crops.
One of the responders, Matthew, replied:
There is another form of conventional farming, and that is no-till [...]
Continue reading about Has No-Till Become Popular Enough to Be Called “Conventional?”
Let’s Stick to Horizontal Farming for Now
Climate change calamatists…people who’ve panicked about the changes in Earth’s biosphere… say that in 50 years our farmlands will be reduced to wastelands.
Last week, a popular opinion column in the New York Times concluded that, under this scenario, “the majority of people could soon be without food or water.” [...]
If annual ryegrass is part of your rotation now, you will have noticed that - come this time of year - things dry out and crop roots start heading south looking for moisture. Annual ryegrass accommodates that better than in the old days, when conventional tillage would’ve created a layer of compacted soil that roots [...]
Continue reading about Corn and Soybeans Enjoy New Room to Grow with Deeper Roots
A recent question came to us:
We are curious about the use of cover crops to remediate compaction as compared to traditional methods of “heavy iron”.
Here’s some background:
Researchers at the University of Missouri have been using annual ryegrass on their claypan soils. These only have 2-3″ of topsoil and then very thick claypan layer. Newell Kitchen [...]
