Farmers that care cover crop their fields. #KeepItCovered
Some people look at fields with cover crops and conservation tillage and see messy and poorly managed. Let’s flip that opinion and celebrate their healthy soils one field, billboard, and advertisement at a time.
Flip the Language
Ugly
Messy
Weedy
Poorly managed
Poorly managed
Have You Seen Us?
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Conservation practices work for you!
Cover Crops
- Keep your soil on your field! Cover crops reduce wind erosion even in the coldest of winters.
- Stressing about spring planting? Cover crops can reduce the variability of spring planting times.
- Tired of expensive fertilizers? Cover crops can cut back on the amount of fertilizer you need.
- Diversify your income! Plant cover crops you can sell, like sunflowers, wheat, and forage crops.
Conservation Tillage
- Take that vacation! Reduced tillage means less passes on the field, and more time at the lake.
- Want your kids to take over your farm? Reduced tillage builds soil structure so your land is valuable for generations to come.
- Tired of watching expensive fertilizers end up in your water? Reduced tillage helps keep soil and nutrients in the field instead of your creek.
Check out the science underground.
Conservation tillage minimizes the number of passes a tiller needs to make through the field, letting crop residue decompose on its own and soil structure flourish. Cover crops reduce weed pressure, which reduces the need to till or spray herbicides for weed control. Minimized soil disturbances supports healthy physical and biological soil characteristics, leading to better chemical properties.
Cover crops extend the number of weeks or even months of living roots in the field. In the coldest of climates, hardy cover crops like wheat, barley and triticale still have enough time to establish in fall, and some farmers even use frost seeding to plant cover crops in the spring before the end of the freeze and thaw cycle. Living roots add organic matter to the soil, support soil fauna activity and protect soil structure.
Cover crops are available as single crops or mixes adding to diversity within the crop rotation. Crop diversity supports diverse biological soil components, and conservation tillage helps preserve this diversity.
Both cover crops and conservation tillage maintain living or decomposing organic matter on the soil, protecting soil from erosion, soil compaction, and drought stress.
It’s what’s under the hood that matters.
Soil health is the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans. (Source: USDA)
These include soil structure, type, and water holding capacity. Soil structure plays an integral role in maintaining desirable soil moisture levels while reducing soil erosion. These traits are particularly important in Minnesota to protect crops from heavy rain events, long periods of drought, and winter wind erosion. Due to the history of glacial movement in Minnesota, our soils are highly variable, containing seven out of the twelve soil orders. Soil type cannot be changed on a farm, but knowing the mix of sand, silt, and clay informs how to improve or maintain soil structure.
These include soil pH, extractable phosphorus, and minor elements. Soil pH affects plant nutrient availability – trapping nutrients in soil particles or releasing nutrients that leach into surrounding waterways. Extractable phosphorus, an essential nutrient for cash crops, commonly binds with soil particles. Planting cover crops that mine phosphorus can increase phosphorus availability, reducing the need to apply inorganic phosphorus that could harm our beautiful lakes and rivers.
These include organic matter, soil micro- and macro-biota, and soil respiration. Organic matter plays a key role in determining physical, chemical, and biological soil traits. Soils with low organic matter tend to hold either too much or not enough water, leach nutrients, and have low activity and diversity of soil fauna. Soil micro- and macrobiota, like bacteria, fungi, nematodes, earthworms, and beneficial insects facilitate many soil chemical and physical processes. They help break down organic matter, mine nutrients, and protect crops from pests and diseases.
Partners
This work is supported by funding through a Conservation Innovation Grant from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.
