Why Cover Crops?

Non-legume cover crops build soil tilth and also scavenge and hold nutrients.

Welcome to Plant Cover Crops.

This site is dedicated to learning about the value that cover crops bring to production agriculture. Check out the category listings to the right to scan for topics of interest.

If you want to scan the latest blog posts, just click on the “cover crop blog” page link above.

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So what about cover crops?

Farmers often ask me “why” they should consider planting cover crops after harvest. I have listed a number of reasons below.

Cover crops:

  • Improve yield potential over time
  • Improve weed control of winter annuals
  • Reduce erosion
  • Increase earthworm populations
  • Improve soil microbiology
  • Build soil tilth
  • Produce and scavenge nutrients
  • Help you with manure management

Cover crop roots, along with the additional earthworms:

  • Increase soil tilth
  • Increase soil porosity
  • Increase soil aeration
  • Increase “channels” for future row crop roots to follow
  • Reduce compaction
  • Increase nutrient recycling

To learn even more benefits of planting cover crops, be sure to check out the amazing webinars put on by Dr. Eileen Kladivko, Mike Plumer, and Barry Fisher at http://www.ciscoseeds.com/webinars.php

Forager Mix

Oats, Cereal Rye, and Turnips aerial applied into standing corn. This made fantastic winter and spring grazing for beef cattle.

Cover crops provide living roots for "the rest of the year" after the cash crop is harvested.

Cover crops provide living roots for "the rest of the year" after the cash crop is harvested.

Earthworms thrive in many cover crop species

Earthworms thrive in many cover crop species

 

 

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