Cover Crops
Derek Martin has transformed a 6,000-acre farming operation from an input-guzzling leviathan to a profit-per-acre force.
The eastern half of the U.S. is plagued by 50 million acres of fragipan soil. Light in color, fragipan often starts at 1’ to 2’ below the surface and roughly averages 2’ to 4’ in thickness.
Mikey Taylor’s 110-acre block of cover crops has attracted pickers from multiple states and yielded a bounty of blessing.
Cover crops are a bustling industry within agriculture, but, the cover crop drumbeat is also met with skepticism or opposition, and some producers point toward the fallacy of blanket acceptance.
In a matter of a few short years, you can undo more than 100 years of work. How? For each 1” of topsoil that is eroded, it takes at least 100 years to regenerate.
Learn how to save labor, fuel and equipment costs with this conservation practice.
Cover crops continue to work their way onto fields across the Midwest. While the benefits might be well known, so are the challenges in developing an on-farm system to work in each situation.
Letting growers take control of their destiny during challenging economic times
The Midwest Cover Crops Council, with the University of Illinois Extension, will be holding its annual meeting in Springfield, Ill., Feb. 20-21. The theme is, “Cover Crops and Soil Health: The Practical Way Forward.”