The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.
Cover Crops in Small Grain
Wikipedia W icon.svg

In agriculture, cover crops are plants that are planted to cover the soil rather than for the purpose of being harvested. Cover crops manage soil erosion, soil fertility, soil quality, water, weeds, pests, diseases, biodiversity and wildlife in an agroecosystem—an ecological system managed and shaped by humans. Cover crops can increase microbial activity in the soil, which has a positive effect on nitrogen availability, nitrogen uptake in target crops, and crop yields. Cover crops may be an off-season crop planted after harvesting the cash crop. Cover crops are nurse crops in that they increase the survival of the main crop being harvested, and are often grown over the winter. In the United States, cover cropping may cost as much as $35 per acre.

Benefits

Cover crops offer many benefits, including:

These benefits accumulate over time. Through sustained use in a farming context, they help to reduce costs and improve output, thus increasing profits. By increasing the health of soil and crops, they aid the environmental sustainability and financial sustainability of the farm.

See also

Resources

Managing Cover Crops Profitably, 2nd Edition - Download this 212 page book free as a PDF file.

"Managing Cover Crops Profitably" explores how and why cover crops work and provides all the information needed to build cover crops into any farming operation. This is the most comprehensive book ever published on the use of cover crops to sustain cropping systems and build soil.

http://www.sare.org/publications/covercrops.htm

External links

FA info icon.svg Angle down icon.svg Page data
Keywords land degradation gallery
Authors Chris Watkins, Eric Blazek
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Language English (en)
Related 0 subpages, 7 pages link here
Impact 326 page views
Created May 2, 2006 by Eric Blazek
Modified June 14, 2022 by Felipe Schenone
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.