Page 10 - Ebook_CoverCrops2022_Final
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The use of cover crops represents “a big change
in an operation. You do not want to mess up
your cash crop in doing cover crops the wrong
way,” said Margaret Henry, PepsiCo’s director
of sustainable agriculture.
PepsiCo provides payments directly to farmers
and provides technical advice through indepen-
dent organizations such as Practical Farmers of
Iowa and the Illinois Corn Growers Association.
Farmers in the program planted 89,000 acres
of cover crops in 2020 and the goal was to have
200,000 acres in 2021.
Cover .crops .like .this .radish .are .becoming .more . .
In California, Braga Fresh Family Farms has commonplace .on .farms .across .the .country .
incorporated Merced Rye and a few cover crop Briese said that cover crops can provide a lot of
mixes into its crop rotation plan for its operation solutions to problems that are becoming increas-
that grows cool-season vegetables. ingly harder to solve mechanically, like con-
Eric Morgan, Braga Fresh’s vice president of trolling herbicide-resistant weeds. But he warns
environmental science resources, said the com- farmers that cover crop effectiveness depends on
pany aims to help stabilize slopes. He also said a variety of factors, some of which are out of
cover crops helped to capture residual nitrogen the producers’ control.
in the winter and convert that nitrogen into “It’s a biological thing, it’s not a mechani-
plant tissue, which can sometimes be made cal thing,” he said. “When we do something
available for their first or second crop in the mechanically, whether tillage or mowing or
spring. whatever, you can force it to happen. When
you’re talking about biology, you need the envi-
“A crop after a cover crop will have better yield, ronment to work for you.”
the soil will be softer,” he said. “Cover crops
help us out quite a bit.” But Missouri producer MacCauley Kincaid
believes that a shift in mindset from depending on
Caleb Akin, who runs A&W farms in Cam- mechanical practices and chemicals to biologically
bridge, Iowa, with Noah Wendt, regularly deals based solutions is important for the long term.
with weeds like water hemp, ragweed, button-
weed, and foxtail — which he emphatically “When you start thinking about your farm as an
says is “the worst.” But for the farm’s organic, ecosystem, instead of a chemistry set, then that’s
no-till soybean field, he and his partner needed when we can really start doing ecological bene-
a way to fight weeds without spraying, so they’ve fits for the environment,” Kincaid said
implemented buckwheat between rows.
Good .management .is .critical . .
“Cover crops are the key to it,” Akin said. to .sequestering .carbon, .too
“Where there could be a weed growing, you’re
putting a cover crop there instead. So now Cover crops add biomass to the soil, which helps
you’re in control of what weeds you’re dealing to pull more carbon out of the atmosphere and
with.” store, or sequester, it in the soil, which can help
10 www.Agri-Pulse.com
