Cover Crops
Farming has always been—and will always be—demanding and difficult. Any seasoned farmer is skeptical of any farming solution that just sounds too good to be true. However, in the case of cover crops, which can perform such a wide range of important duties, farmers do indeed have a solution to many tough problems that is both effective and time-tested.
In general, a cover crop is any plant that is grown by a farmer to improve some aspect of the farm’s production rather than for direct sale. Cover crops boast an impressive list of benefits: soil erosion, soil fertility, pest and weed management, disease prevention, water retention, and reduction of ecological impact. Cover crops that are principally used to improve soil fertility are frequently referred to as “green manure.”
The three main families of cover crop we work with here at Scout Seed are brassicas, legumes, and grasses. Each species performs a slightly different task and requires different timing in order to optimize a farm’s output, efficiency, and health.
Noted agricultural researcher, author, and advisor to the USDA Elliot Coleman writes:
Green-manure crops help protect against erosion, retain nutrients that might otherwise be leached from the soil, suppress the germination and growth of weeds, cycle nutrients from the lower to the upper layers of the soil, and—in the case of legumes—leave the following crop a considerable quantity of nitrogen. Other contributions of a green manure are improved soil structure, and increased nutrient availability for plants.
Cover crop use is not without challenges. The interactions between cash crop, cover crop, soil, and climate are incredibly complex, and it is far too easy to miss out on the full potential of cover crop use if some part of the system is not quite right. That’s why, at our Scout Seed Co. research farm in Virginia, we dedicate our efforts to optimizing what to plant and when to plant it, so that your row crops flourish, you spend less on costly inputs, and your soil improves year in and year out.