COVER CROPS AN IMPORTANT PART OF NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT

Lindsay Mitchell

Aug 28, 2013  |  Today's News

Farmers are being encouraged to consider growing cover crops on their fields through the winter.  Studies show that a living, growing plant in the ground year round improves the soil, productivity, and nutrient runoff. 

The science behind this makes sense.  On a big picture level, Illinois is prairie and having grasses growing on our soil year round is a return to what built the rich organic soils in the first place.  But looking closer, planting rye grass or cereal rye after you harvest your corn crop makes sense.

As the cover crop grows in the fall, it uses the nitrogen left in the soil to grow and stores it within the plant.  In the spring when the farmer kills the cover crop, the nitrogen is released back into the soil for the corn crop to use.  This management technique significantly minimizes the nitrogen remaining to run off into the water supply.

A cover crop also reduces compaction, increases organic matter in the soil, and otherwise helps the health of the soil and increases productivity for the farmer.  In fact, some farmers doing trials in Illinois this past year have noticed up to 20 bushels per acre increase in yield!

Cover crops also encourage the growth of organisms in the soil so that over the course of a couple of years, the organisms completely diminish the residue left on the field, significantly assisting farmers using corn on corn rotations.

The Council on Best Management Practices is now working one-on-one with farmers in the Springfield, IL area.  Several will be growing cover crops this winter as a trial and demonstration for other local farmers.  And we hope to show farmers the environmental and economic benefit of growing cover crops on their fields as a part of the normal corn on corn rotation.

Using science as our base, we know that farmers will definitely be on board for improving the resources in their care.