Across Ontario, wheat harvest continues, opening the best window for planting cover crops in most field crop rotations. You can find more information on the 2023 winter wheat quality update and achieving success with cover crops after wheat at fieldcropnews.com. But can those cover crops be managed to supply nitrogen to the next crop? The amount of nitrogen […] Read more
Tag Archives Cover crop
Managing cover crop nitrogen, residue breakdown
OMAFRA Field Crop Report for the week of July 31
Boosting soil health with cover-crop combination of soybean and rye
Brigden farm sees benefits to planting winter cover into standing crop of beans
A Brigden-area farmer’s field-to-field comparison during this year’s dry conditions for soybean planting supports the long-term benefit of no-till and cover crop strategies. Aubrey Lang spoke about his family’s soybean-soybean-soybean-wheat rotation, with a rye cover crop almost yearly, during a grower open house hosted by Petrolia-based Field Farms Marketing on June 22. Lang’s late grandfather […] Read more
How farmers modified planting equipment to match production goals
Farmers share how they adapted existing iron rather than buy new
Are high equipment prices keeping farmers from achieving production goals? Modifying equipment in the shop, rather than buying the right implement outright, could be a solution. Why it matters: Modifying and constructing equipment on the farm can alleviate the high costs of machinery. Through 2022, Colin Elgie and Andrew Barrie, soil fertility and environmental specialists […] Read more
U.S. aims to double cover crop planting to address climate change
Farmers in 11 states to be eligible for program
Chicago | Reuters — The United States aims to double the country’s cover crop plantings to 30 million acres by 2030 under a new Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation program launched on Monday. The agency’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will spend US$38 million to help farmers in 11 states plant crops at a time […] Read more
Long-term Ontario studies show value of cover crops
Boosting organic matter in soils proved to boost profit margins and reduce yield variation year to year
A series of long-term studies in southern Ontario are showing the value of cover crops and boosting soil organic matter. When combining data across experiments and research stations, University of Guelph soil scientist Laura Van Eerd said researchers consistently saw higher corn and soybean yields correlate to higher soil organic matter. Van Eerd spoke during […] Read more
Cover crop adoption decisions are complex
Knowledge transfer and local expertise key to farmer trust in practices
Crops cover more than 11 per cent of the earth’s land surface, a figure that is growing every year as grasslands are tilled and forests razed. That’s one reason for greater interest in keeping that land covered throughout the year but increasing the volume of cover crops also means addressing the economics and sociological factors […] Read more
Looking for a fourth crop to your rotation?
Pollinator-friendly buckwheat shows value in corn-soybean-wheat rotation
In his search for a fourth crop, Henry Denotter, a Kingsville-area grain grower, has turned his attention to buckwheat — a long-established but comparatively unpopular grain now used predominantly in cover cropping. Why it matters: Diversity in crop rotation is a critical part of environmental sustainability, as well as a farm’s economic longevity. Finding a […] Read more
Eastern Canada gets poor grades on soil
A report card compares soil management and health between Eastern and Western Canada
The Soil Conservation Council of Canada has released its first national soil health report card. The soil grades are based on farmer changes made over the past five to 10 years, soil conditions, and whether organic matter levels have improved. “It wasn’t in terms of hard data, but just from my experience and research, extensions […] Read more
Cargill-led fund to pay U.S. farmers for carbon capture
Reuters – Global commodities trader Cargill Inc. starting this spring plans to pay American farmers for capturing carbon in their field soils and reducing fertilizer runoff, an executive said. The Soil and Water Outcomes Fund, a partnership with the Iowa Soybean Association and third-party verification company Quantified Ventures, will then sell the environmental credits created […] Read more
Promoting winter cover crops with local data
Conservation authority looking for cover crop impact on water quality in Upper Thames
In an effort to improve water quality, the Upper Thames Conservation Authority (UTCA) is promoting cover crop adoption by making data on the environmental efficacy of winter cover more relevant to local farmers. Why it matters: Better economic data would help farmers making decisions about whether to use cover crops. The UTCA is pursuing the […] Read more
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