Cover Crop
Benefits
Crop
Yields Soil
Quality Beneficial
Insects Diseases
and Nematodes Weeds Nutrient
Availability Soil
Compaction Soil
Moisture Erosion Runoff Organic
Matter Infiltration
Cover Crop Benefits
What
is a cover crop?
A cover crop is a crop grown to cover the soil. It may either be tilled into the soil as a “green manure” or used as a living or dead mulch on the soil surface. A cover crop may, or may not, be harvested. A cover crop can be any type of plants, but are generally grasses (including cereal grains), legumes, or grass/legume mixtures. Some non-legume broad-leaved plants are also used.
Most farmers who use cover crops plant them in the fall and then kill them in the spring before they plant their main crop. The cover crop is then growing when the ground would otherwise be bare. However, some farmers use summer cover crops in rotation with short season vegetables or before fall planted crops.
What are the Benefits of cover crops?
Cover crops improve the physical, chemical, and biological quality of soil. They do this by covering the soil surface, penetrating the soil (roots), adding organic matter to the soil, and by being involved in the soil nutrient cycle. They can also help in managing insects and disease. However, no one cover crop will give you all these benefits. You must decide what you want to achieve and then choose the right cover crop.
Although they cannot always explain the mechanisms involved, farmers and researchers have found that cover crops can have the following beneficial effects:
- Increase soil organic matter
- Increase infiltration
- Decrease runoff
- Decrease soil erosion
- Conserve soil moisture
- Reduce soil compaction
- Increase nutrient availability
- Reduce nitrate leaching
- Supply nitrogen to following crop
- Suppress weeds
- Suppress soil-born diseases and nematodes
- Attract beneficial insects
- Increase yields of the following crop
- Improve soil quality
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