Despite their northern climate, the Willfords say they haven’t seen a yield hit in their 12 years of no-till, and erosion has almost come to a halt. Soil health is booming, and now they’re working to advance their operation another step by adding covercrops. The soybeans on the no-till/cover-crop half had a taller, more uniform stand. Cavadini believes the no-tilled soil may have responded better to moisture stress, as they had received significant rainfall. No-till and covercrops as part of a broader strategy. Why go to the trouble to integrate environmentally sound production practices onto a farm whose goal is to maximize crop yield? The covercrop roots can also capture nutrients which might otherwise end up in the watercourse. The field lab aims to assess whether notill and covercrop practices can improve soil health and reduce river water nutrient loading in the Evenlode catchment. He grows all his crops without irrigation. He can’t control how much water they get, but he doesn’t worry about it. Instead, he has faith that no-till practices, residue cover and soil health will get his crops through dry cycles. The combination of technology, management, no-till, and covercrops has proven results on the farm. Norris has started experimenting with multi-species covercrop mixes to continue to improve soil health and add value to the operation. Organic No-TillCoverCrops. Rye and hairy vetch covercrop. Photo Kathryn Simmons.We have used no-tillcovercrops for Roma paste tomatoes, which are transplanted in early May. We don’t need early-ripening for these, making them a good no-till food crop. Covercrops and cattle, no-till and rotation give the Zaecors options. Producing soybeans for seed adds a market advantage, and the cattle offer another risk management enterprise, which provides at least a little comfort with troubling markets. Experiment in notillcover-crop: One major complaint with market gardening was the use of tarps essentially stopping any photosyntheisis and creating a lack of oxygen through occultation. Another concern is the fact that we imported loads of compost to get CEC and OM numbers up. I love covercropping, but don’t feel like you should do it until you have managing your flower farming systems well under control. #flowerfarming #flowerfarmer #covercrop #gardenersworkshopfarm #gardeners Tips for Growing CoverCrops Successfully.
