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Published Oct 5
In infographic form, here’s a quick overview of cover crops based on the AgFuse Original titled “On the Offensive with Cover Crops.” To read the full article, you can visit https://agfuse.com/article/on-the-offensive-with-cover-crops-2.
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Published Sep 5
When it comes to creating a cover crop mix, the options are endless. You need to determine what kind of species you’ll use, how many you’ll use, and at what seeding rates. For anyone new to cover crop blends, these decisions can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there are several free tools available today that can guide both new and experienced cover crop users through the process of developing their own mix. One of those is Green Cover Seed’s SmartMix Calculator...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Aug 31, 2018
It’s common knowledge among peanut farmers that the farther out you space your peanut crops in your rotation, the better off the peanuts will be. Research backs this up. Jason Sarver, Extension Peanut Specialist for Mississippi State University, shared some trial work published by Dr. Scott Tubbs of the University of Georgia in 2015, that looked at peanut yield when grown in multiple rotation lengths, from continuous peanut to every 4 years. As the rotation lengthened, peanut yield increased...
Categories: Cover Crops, Peanuts
Published Jul 18, 2018
As we learn more about what goes on in the world beneath our feet, increased attention has been placed on soil organic matter. And for good reason. While it only makes up a small percentage of most soils, the Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) says it’s the “very foundation for healthy and productive soils” — and the more organic matter there is, the better the results. Consider the following findings from SARE and the NRCS:A study of soils in Michigan demonstrated potential crop-yield increases of about 12% for every 1% organic matter. When organic matter increased from 0...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Jun 29, 2018
When it comes to cover crops and nutrient management, a lot of the focus is on what cover crops can do for soil fertility. Depending on the species being used, they can prevent leftover nutrients from running off into waterways or even produce some fertilizer for future crop use. But how should farmers adjust their fertilizer practices for their cash crops following cover crops? John Pike, a contract researcher and cover crop specialist for the Zea Maize Foundation and IL Sustainable Agriculture Partnership, and a former Research Agronomist at the University of Illinois at Dixon Springs Research station, says that while there are some nuances that need to be planned for, the basic principles of soil fertility and crop management are much the same. “It’s a matter of fine-tuning the cover crop system to fit the soils, climate and equipment that’s available in the operation that we’re talking about on any given day,” he says. “We’re talking about soil fertility and growing corn and beans and wheat or whatever the crop is, so approach it from a logical standpoint, one step at a time, to figure out the best system for the crops, soils and equipment you’re dealing with...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Jun 15, 2018
You probably know that having a crop rotation is a good thing. Growing different crops back to back provides several benefits, such as preventing pests and disease, improving soil health and reducing fertilizer inputs, all of which can boost your crop yields and your bottom line. By adding cover crops to the mix, you’re diversifying your rotation even more. But have you thought about rotating your cover crops? Should you be using the same cover crop species back to back, year after year?Dave Robison, who runs the blog PlantCoverCrops. com and is an agronomist for Legacy Seeds, says there is value in rotating — especially if you’re using brassicas and peas...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Aug 13, 2018
A common concern growers may have when they move to a no-till system is nutrient stratification. Without tillage to mix fertilizer into the soil, no-tillers may wonder whether the nutrients applied to the soil surface are reaching the crop roots. According to University of Nebraska Extension engineer Paul Jasa and Ray Ward, plant scientist and founder of Ward Laboratories in Kearney, Neb. , the resounding answer is: yes, they are. Even though stratification — the non-uniform distribution of nutrients within a soil’s depth, with higher concentrations of nutrients toward the soil surface — does occur in no-till, it should not be a concern...
Categories: Corn, Cover Crops
Published May 17, 2018
In 1995, Pennsylvania farmer Steve Groff was speaking at an event when he asked the audience the question: Do cover crops pay off?His thinking at the time was that he had been no-tilling since 1982, and maybe if he no-tilled long enough, he wouldn’t need them. Ray Weil, a soil ecologist with the University of Maryland, happened to hear his question and approached Groff about doing a cover crop study on his farm. It turned into a 12-year project, from 1995 to 2007. It was in 1999, four years into it, Groff got the answer to his question. That was the year he had a drought, and the corn that was grown on previously cover-cropped ground out-yielded the corn on non-cover cropped ground by 28 bushels per acre...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Jul 18
Wet conditions across the country forced many farmers to forgo their plans for the season and take prevented planting payments instead. The USDA says that as of July 8, 2019, its paid roughly $184 million in claims for prevented planting because of floods and excess moisture. University of Illinois ag economist Gary Schnitkey estimates payouts could reach a record-setting $3. 578 billion. But just because you couldn’t get a cash crop planted doesn’t mean those acres should stay bare until next spring...
Categories: Cover Crops
By Cover Crops
Published Sep 14, 2018
It's a fact: cover crops tend to make good farmers into great farmers and average farmers into bad farmers. Cover crops work. But, management is key and the learning curve can be steep. If you've been sitting on the sidelines in the past but are interested in jumping on the cover crop bandwagon, don't be intimidated. There are cover crop choices that will make your first foray into cover crops a profitable and enjoyable experience...
Categories: Cover Crops
By Pat Rogers
Published Jan 24, 2018
In the past few years, we have made a concerted effort to increase the usage of cover crops and other conservation practices on our farm. I have learned a lot of lessons from this experience but one stands out above the rest. Being a good steward of the environment and aiming to produce high yields don’t have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, I would argue that if intensively managed, conservation practices should significantly enhance yields. The cornerstone of any good crop production system involving conservation techniques is the establishment of cover crops...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Jul 1
With May 2018 to April 2019 being the wettest 12-month period on record, according to NOAA, many farmers across the nation were forced to delay planting. In fact, for the first time on record, less than half of corn was planted by May 19, says the USDA. Even by June 2, “both corn and soybean planting were proceeding at a record slow pace. ”For those with cover crops, these wet conditions likely affected their termination plans, causing some to debate whether they should terminate before or after planting. Penn State Extension Educator and Agronomist Heidi Reed says she saw several farmers in York County, Pa...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published May 17
The 2019 edition of our “31 Days of Cover Crops Photo Contest” has ended. We received many great entries and want to thank everyone for their participation. As previously detailed, we will award three winners based on which entries have the most engagements, which we define as the sum of likes and shares. The first-place winner, who will receive a $200 gift card to Amazon, is the Accidental Agronomist from Annville, Pennsylvania. Accidental Agronomist Posted on AgFuse Clover and blue sky are a perfect match...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Apr 19
If you’ve considered using cereal rye as a cover crop in front of corn, you’ve probably been warned that your yield would suffer. And the truth is it might. Research has shown that corn yields can take a hit after cereal rye, but it doesn’t happen every time. Unfortunately, it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly is causing these problems, and predict when they may occur. Alison Robertson, a plant pathologist at Iowa State University, believes it’s a combination of ‘green bridge,’ allelopathy, nitrogen and the environment that are involved...
Categories: Corn, Cover Crops
Published Apr 15
AgFuse is excited to announce our third year of hosting a fun photo contest and we want you to be a part of it. There will be three winners with the first prize being a $200 gift card to Amazon! The second prize is a $100 Amazon gift card and the third prize is a $50 Amazon gift card. To enter our 31 Days of Cover Crops Photo Contest, simply take a photograph of your cover crops and post your image in the Cover Crops group on AgFuse. The winning photo will be the entry with the most engagements, which we define as the sum of likes and shares. Second place will go to the entry with the second-most engagements and third place will go to the entry with the third-most engagements...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Mar 25
18 years ago, we bought our first self-propelled sprayer and it revolutionized access to land, it was light and well balanced and made fertilizer and crop protection applications easy. Our timeliness and the ruts we used to leave in tramlines all but disappeared. Back then If you had told me I would ever consider running a trailed sprayer on my farm again I would have thought you were mad. I was once told the difference between a good farmer and a bad one was “a week” so I have always placed ability to travel and make timely application of inputs highly on my list of farming priorities. So why today do I find myself the proud owner of a new trailed sprayer? Both bigger and heavier than any sprayer we have ever run before, and why am I more confident than ever of timely application with this heavy weight monster? What changed? Soil is what changed, and nothing is more demonstrative of that than this increased ability to carry traffic...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Mar 7
While there are numerous reasons for using cover crops, a primary one is improving soil health. In fact, it’s the one benefit most farmers using cover crops have experienced: In the most recent Cover Crop Survey Annual Report, of those who rated the statement, “Using cover crops has improved soil health on my farm,” 86% agreed or strongly agreed. The report notes that it’s interesting and heartening that “soil health reflects an embrace of a long-term, hard-to-quantify benefit of cover crops, and that for the past two surveys, it has achieved the top spot by garnering 86% of the responses. ”While soil health may be harder to quantify than benefits like biomass production or input savings, there are ways of measuring how cover crops are making a difference in your soil. 1...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Jan 29
If you’re a farmer, at some point you’ll likely experience a late harvest, whether it’s due to Mother Nature or an equipment problem. And if you plan on seeding your cover crops after your crops are off, you have the added challenge of trying to get them seeded in a timely manner. Depending on how late it gets, you may wonder whether it’s even worth seeding them at all. It leads to the question: Is it ever too late to seed cover crops?The short answer: It depends. “Each situation is going to depend on the variables and conditions of that particular farmer,” says Wayne Ebersole...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Jan 19
Direct Driller Magazine Issue 4 Direct Driller Issue 4 is out now! You can read the digital version here: Direct Driller - Issue 4 - January 2019 The first 3 issues have had a great reception and we hope that Issue 4 keeps the standard high. It has stayed at 100 pages and remains advertising light. Here are some of the articles in the Winter edition: Soil Calcium and Soil Heath – the connection? Getting the best out of a 750A Field Pea Demonstration Trial Options to improve water-use efficiency Featured Farmer: Mark Lea Pushing Performance with Biostimulants Companion Cropping Boosts No-Till Profits Farmer Focus: Steve Lear Grazing Cropped Land Lifting Whole Farm Profits at Howick Using Temporary Electric Fencing Soil and Water Creating a Smarter Water Catchment What's most important in your soil Plowman's Folly: Part 2 Farmer Focus: Clive Bailye AHDB: Why Does Healthy Soil Matter AHDB: Aphids and BYDV management AHDB: Assessing Machinery Policy 3000ha per Year with a 3m Drill Comparison of “standard row“ and “wide row“ ADAS - How to do an on Farm Trial Project Xaver Overbury Estate Open Day Calcium Conference Highlights NOCC 2018 Visit to Victors Disc Verses Tine Lessons from STAR and NFS We want this to be a magazine that you actually want to read, content heavy and something that challenges you, a magazine you keep on your shelf and refer back to at a later date. Over the next few weeks we will also be adding the content onto The Farming Forum in the Direct Drilling Section so if you have further questions or commentary on the articles you can ask or post them there. We always welcome feedback (positive and negative), content suggestions and future ideas...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Jan 19
FARM WALKS WITH THE SOIL FARMERS OF THE YEAR 2018The winners of the FCCT Soil Farmer of the Year competition opened their gates over four days and provided a veritable masterclass in managing soils. Spanning a range of soil types, management systems and enterprises, attending farmers gained insights into their award winning management and a better understanding as to why these farms had been picked as the top three in this year’s competition. The Soil Farmer of the Year Competition, now in its third year, is run by the Farm Carbon Cutting Toolkit and Innovation for Agriculture. The competition aims to find farmers and growers who are engaged with, and passionate about managing their soils in a way which supports productive agriculture, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and builds soil health, organic matter and ultimately, carbon. For the first time this year, some of our finalists were presented with their certificates at Groundswell, which was a fitting venue to recognise their achievements...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Nov 2, 2018
If someone asked you, “How do plants take up the water and nutrients they need?” you’d probably tell them through the roots. But did you know that for many crops, those roots aren’t working alone?That’s because most plant species associate with mycorrhizal fungi. What is mycorrhizal fungi? University of Alberta biological scientist JC Cahill says that mycorrhizas are actually the interaction between a fungus and a plant. Although there are many different types of mycorrhizae, the only one crop farmers need to be concerned about is arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), as 65% of plant species associate with it. A microscopic view of an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus growing on a corn root...
Categories: Cover Crops
By Darren Chan
Published Nov 2, 2018
Target CropsTomato vegetables, peppers, carrots and lots of other vegetable crops. Tomato vegetables are moderately prone to root knot nematodes. Where to find All over the world, in warm temperate climatesBrief infoRoot knot nematodes are small eelworms living in soil and be plant parasites once they use tomato roots as their nurseries. Usually nematodes enter tomato roots through plant’s small injuries. With the increase of number of nematodes, healthy plant’s roots are destroyed, and twisty galls to take their place...
Categories: Agribusiness, Cover Crops, Irrigation
Published Oct 21, 2018
It can be read here and you will see it has grown to 100 pages, which is where we expect it to stay going forward. Direct Driller Issue 3 Issue 3 Of Direct Driller magazine. The conservation agriculture magazine created by farmers for farmers. Subscribe for your free print copy at http://www. directdriller...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Oct 10, 2018
Part 1: Know Your True Cost of Production Why Your TCOP Matters How to Calculate Your TCOP Part 2: Take the Emotions Out of Your Marketing Plan Why You Need a Plan How to Create a Marketing Matrix How to Determine Your Marketable Inventory How to Use a Marketing Matrix Why You Need an Accountability Partner Part 3: Replace Dead Assets What Are Dead Assets? What Are Productive Assets? Part 4: Manage Your Cash Flow Conversion Cycle What a Cash Flow Conversion Cycle Is How to Speed Up Incoming Flows How to Postpone Outgoing Flows How to Minimize Paying Interest Part 5: Start Using Cover Crops . . . And Get Paid To Do It Why Cover Crops Make Sense How to Obtain Funding Part 6: Take Your Own Soil Samples Why You Should Get Your Own Sampler Who Else You Can Get Consultations From How This Approach Helps You Save Part 7: Bid Out Inputs Why You Should Be In Contact With Multiple Dealers What the Ground Rules Are For Getting Multiple Bids Part 8: Manage Your Fields By Zone How to Create Productivity Zones How to Use Productivity Zones How the Management System Affects Profits Part 9: Focus on Efficiency Over Growth Why Efficiency Matters More Than Size How to Increase Revenue How to Reduce Costs How Increased Efficiency Can Lead to Scaling Part 10: Know Your Optimal Scale . ...
Categories: Agribusiness, Marketing, Cover Crops
By Darren Chan
Published Sep 20, 2018
Rose ,so romantic and lovely. It is really a pleasure to plant roses. Today when you come to your beloved rose bushes, you are surprised to find that your lovely roses are covered by a dusting of white powder on buds,stems and leaves. These white powder makes your roses,once beautiful and heathy,look sick and ugly. Turns out that your roses have powdery mildew...
Categories: Agribusiness, Cover Crops, Organic
Published Aug 24, 2018
From Direct Driller Magazine: Issue 2Written by Frédéric ThomasLike many farmers, Michel Mercier first got into direct drilling based on the economic savings it offered. He first worked with an SE Horsch then onto an AT Köckerling, then onto a SD Kuhn, only to find that the drill is only an ingredient, only part of a solution, purely the way to do something. He soon realised that the key to success lies in the soil, it’s quality and its structure. On his soils with low potential (gravelly to stony silts with a good proportion of flint) in the North-East of Chartres (Eure-et-Loir), he re-taught himself to respect the soil by means of TMCE (Mineral Technology Culture and Breeding – www. tmce...
Categories: Cover Crops
By Darren Chan
Published Jul 4, 2018
Magnesium’s effect is essential for grape,it can be called “a large number of elements” for grapes,and the demand is simliar to phosphorus. Even the magnesium content of grape leaves is higher than that of phosphorus. It is directly involved in physiological and biochemical processes such as photosynthesis and enzyme activation of grapes,and is one of the mineral elements necessary for normal growth and development of grapes and improvement of fruit quality. Chlorophyll synthesis and photosynthesisMagnesium accounts for 2. 7% of the molecular weight of chlorophyll...
Categories: Agribusiness, Cover Crops, Specialty/Vegetable
Published Sep 5
When it comes to creating a cover crop mix, the options are endless. You need to determine what kind of species you’ll use, how many you’ll use, and at what seeding rates. For anyone new to cover crop blends, these decisions can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there are several free tools available today that can guide both new and experienced cover crop users through the process of developing their own mix. One of those is Green Cover Seed’s SmartMix Calculator...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Aug 31, 2018
It’s common knowledge among peanut farmers that the farther out you space your peanut crops in your rotation, the better off the peanuts will be. Research backs this up. Jason Sarver, Extension Peanut Specialist for Mississippi State University, shared some trial work published by Dr. Scott Tubbs of the University of Georgia in 2015, that looked at peanut yield when grown in multiple rotation lengths, from continuous peanut to every 4 years. As the rotation lengthened, peanut yield increased...
Categories: Cover Crops, Peanuts
Published Jul 18, 2018
As we learn more about what goes on in the world beneath our feet, increased attention has been placed on soil organic matter. And for good reason. While it only makes up a small percentage of most soils, the Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) says it’s the “very foundation for healthy and productive soils” — and the more organic matter there is, the better the results. Consider the following findings from SARE and the NRCS:A study of soils in Michigan demonstrated potential crop-yield increases of about 12% for every 1% organic matter. When organic matter increased from 0...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Jun 29, 2018
When it comes to cover crops and nutrient management, a lot of the focus is on what cover crops can do for soil fertility. Depending on the species being used, they can prevent leftover nutrients from running off into waterways or even produce some fertilizer for future crop use. But how should farmers adjust their fertilizer practices for their cash crops following cover crops? John Pike, a contract researcher and cover crop specialist for the Zea Maize Foundation and IL Sustainable Agriculture Partnership, and a former Research Agronomist at the University of Illinois at Dixon Springs Research station, says that while there are some nuances that need to be planned for, the basic principles of soil fertility and crop management are much the same. “It’s a matter of fine-tuning the cover crop system to fit the soils, climate and equipment that’s available in the operation that we’re talking about on any given day,” he says. “We’re talking about soil fertility and growing corn and beans and wheat or whatever the crop is, so approach it from a logical standpoint, one step at a time, to figure out the best system for the crops, soils and equipment you’re dealing with...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Jun 15, 2018
You probably know that having a crop rotation is a good thing. Growing different crops back to back provides several benefits, such as preventing pests and disease, improving soil health and reducing fertilizer inputs, all of which can boost your crop yields and your bottom line. By adding cover crops to the mix, you’re diversifying your rotation even more. But have you thought about rotating your cover crops? Should you be using the same cover crop species back to back, year after year?Dave Robison, who runs the blog PlantCoverCrops. com and is an agronomist for Legacy Seeds, says there is value in rotating — especially if you’re using brassicas and peas...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Aug 13, 2018
A common concern growers may have when they move to a no-till system is nutrient stratification. Without tillage to mix fertilizer into the soil, no-tillers may wonder whether the nutrients applied to the soil surface are reaching the crop roots. According to University of Nebraska Extension engineer Paul Jasa and Ray Ward, plant scientist and founder of Ward Laboratories in Kearney, Neb. , the resounding answer is: yes, they are. Even though stratification — the non-uniform distribution of nutrients within a soil’s depth, with higher concentrations of nutrients toward the soil surface — does occur in no-till, it should not be a concern...
Categories: Corn, Cover Crops
Published May 17, 2018
In 1995, Pennsylvania farmer Steve Groff was speaking at an event when he asked the audience the question: Do cover crops pay off?His thinking at the time was that he had been no-tilling since 1982, and maybe if he no-tilled long enough, he wouldn’t need them. Ray Weil, a soil ecologist with the University of Maryland, happened to hear his question and approached Groff about doing a cover crop study on his farm. It turned into a 12-year project, from 1995 to 2007. It was in 1999, four years into it, Groff got the answer to his question. That was the year he had a drought, and the corn that was grown on previously cover-cropped ground out-yielded the corn on non-cover cropped ground by 28 bushels per acre...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Jul 18
Wet conditions across the country forced many farmers to forgo their plans for the season and take prevented planting payments instead. The USDA says that as of July 8, 2019, its paid roughly $184 million in claims for prevented planting because of floods and excess moisture. University of Illinois ag economist Gary Schnitkey estimates payouts could reach a record-setting $3. 578 billion. But just because you couldn’t get a cash crop planted doesn’t mean those acres should stay bare until next spring...
Categories: Cover Crops
By Cover Crops
Published Sep 14, 2018
It's a fact: cover crops tend to make good farmers into great farmers and average farmers into bad farmers. Cover crops work. But, management is key and the learning curve can be steep. If you've been sitting on the sidelines in the past but are interested in jumping on the cover crop bandwagon, don't be intimidated. There are cover crop choices that will make your first foray into cover crops a profitable and enjoyable experience...
Categories: Cover Crops
By Pat Rogers
Published Jan 24, 2018
In the past few years, we have made a concerted effort to increase the usage of cover crops and other conservation practices on our farm. I have learned a lot of lessons from this experience but one stands out above the rest. Being a good steward of the environment and aiming to produce high yields don’t have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, I would argue that if intensively managed, conservation practices should significantly enhance yields. The cornerstone of any good crop production system involving conservation techniques is the establishment of cover crops...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Jul 1
With May 2018 to April 2019 being the wettest 12-month period on record, according to NOAA, many farmers across the nation were forced to delay planting. In fact, for the first time on record, less than half of corn was planted by May 19, says the USDA. Even by June 2, “both corn and soybean planting were proceeding at a record slow pace. ”For those with cover crops, these wet conditions likely affected their termination plans, causing some to debate whether they should terminate before or after planting. Penn State Extension Educator and Agronomist Heidi Reed says she saw several farmers in York County, Pa...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published May 17
The 2019 edition of our “31 Days of Cover Crops Photo Contest” has ended. We received many great entries and want to thank everyone for their participation. As previously detailed, we will award three winners based on which entries have the most engagements, which we define as the sum of likes and shares. The first-place winner, who will receive a $200 gift card to Amazon, is the Accidental Agronomist from Annville, Pennsylvania. Accidental Agronomist Posted on AgFuse Clover and blue sky are a perfect match...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Apr 19
If you’ve considered using cereal rye as a cover crop in front of corn, you’ve probably been warned that your yield would suffer. And the truth is it might. Research has shown that corn yields can take a hit after cereal rye, but it doesn’t happen every time. Unfortunately, it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly is causing these problems, and predict when they may occur. Alison Robertson, a plant pathologist at Iowa State University, believes it’s a combination of ‘green bridge,’ allelopathy, nitrogen and the environment that are involved...
Categories: Corn, Cover Crops
Published Apr 15
AgFuse is excited to announce our third year of hosting a fun photo contest and we want you to be a part of it. There will be three winners with the first prize being a $200 gift card to Amazon! The second prize is a $100 Amazon gift card and the third prize is a $50 Amazon gift card. To enter our 31 Days of Cover Crops Photo Contest, simply take a photograph of your cover crops and post your image in the Cover Crops group on AgFuse. The winning photo will be the entry with the most engagements, which we define as the sum of likes and shares. Second place will go to the entry with the second-most engagements and third place will go to the entry with the third-most engagements...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Mar 25
18 years ago, we bought our first self-propelled sprayer and it revolutionized access to land, it was light and well balanced and made fertilizer and crop protection applications easy. Our timeliness and the ruts we used to leave in tramlines all but disappeared. Back then If you had told me I would ever consider running a trailed sprayer on my farm again I would have thought you were mad. I was once told the difference between a good farmer and a bad one was “a week” so I have always placed ability to travel and make timely application of inputs highly on my list of farming priorities. So why today do I find myself the proud owner of a new trailed sprayer? Both bigger and heavier than any sprayer we have ever run before, and why am I more confident than ever of timely application with this heavy weight monster? What changed? Soil is what changed, and nothing is more demonstrative of that than this increased ability to carry traffic...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Mar 7
While there are numerous reasons for using cover crops, a primary one is improving soil health. In fact, it’s the one benefit most farmers using cover crops have experienced: In the most recent Cover Crop Survey Annual Report, of those who rated the statement, “Using cover crops has improved soil health on my farm,” 86% agreed or strongly agreed. The report notes that it’s interesting and heartening that “soil health reflects an embrace of a long-term, hard-to-quantify benefit of cover crops, and that for the past two surveys, it has achieved the top spot by garnering 86% of the responses. ”While soil health may be harder to quantify than benefits like biomass production or input savings, there are ways of measuring how cover crops are making a difference in your soil. 1...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Jan 29
If you’re a farmer, at some point you’ll likely experience a late harvest, whether it’s due to Mother Nature or an equipment problem. And if you plan on seeding your cover crops after your crops are off, you have the added challenge of trying to get them seeded in a timely manner. Depending on how late it gets, you may wonder whether it’s even worth seeding them at all. It leads to the question: Is it ever too late to seed cover crops?The short answer: It depends. “Each situation is going to depend on the variables and conditions of that particular farmer,” says Wayne Ebersole...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Jan 19
Direct Driller Magazine Issue 4 Direct Driller Issue 4 is out now! You can read the digital version here: Direct Driller - Issue 4 - January 2019 The first 3 issues have had a great reception and we hope that Issue 4 keeps the standard high. It has stayed at 100 pages and remains advertising light. Here are some of the articles in the Winter edition: Soil Calcium and Soil Heath – the connection? Getting the best out of a 750A Field Pea Demonstration Trial Options to improve water-use efficiency Featured Farmer: Mark Lea Pushing Performance with Biostimulants Companion Cropping Boosts No-Till Profits Farmer Focus: Steve Lear Grazing Cropped Land Lifting Whole Farm Profits at Howick Using Temporary Electric Fencing Soil and Water Creating a Smarter Water Catchment What's most important in your soil Plowman's Folly: Part 2 Farmer Focus: Clive Bailye AHDB: Why Does Healthy Soil Matter AHDB: Aphids and BYDV management AHDB: Assessing Machinery Policy 3000ha per Year with a 3m Drill Comparison of “standard row“ and “wide row“ ADAS - How to do an on Farm Trial Project Xaver Overbury Estate Open Day Calcium Conference Highlights NOCC 2018 Visit to Victors Disc Verses Tine Lessons from STAR and NFS We want this to be a magazine that you actually want to read, content heavy and something that challenges you, a magazine you keep on your shelf and refer back to at a later date. Over the next few weeks we will also be adding the content onto The Farming Forum in the Direct Drilling Section so if you have further questions or commentary on the articles you can ask or post them there. We always welcome feedback (positive and negative), content suggestions and future ideas...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Jan 19
FARM WALKS WITH THE SOIL FARMERS OF THE YEAR 2018The winners of the FCCT Soil Farmer of the Year competition opened their gates over four days and provided a veritable masterclass in managing soils. Spanning a range of soil types, management systems and enterprises, attending farmers gained insights into their award winning management and a better understanding as to why these farms had been picked as the top three in this year’s competition. The Soil Farmer of the Year Competition, now in its third year, is run by the Farm Carbon Cutting Toolkit and Innovation for Agriculture. The competition aims to find farmers and growers who are engaged with, and passionate about managing their soils in a way which supports productive agriculture, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and builds soil health, organic matter and ultimately, carbon. For the first time this year, some of our finalists were presented with their certificates at Groundswell, which was a fitting venue to recognise their achievements...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Nov 2, 2018
If someone asked you, “How do plants take up the water and nutrients they need?” you’d probably tell them through the roots. But did you know that for many crops, those roots aren’t working alone?That’s because most plant species associate with mycorrhizal fungi. What is mycorrhizal fungi? University of Alberta biological scientist JC Cahill says that mycorrhizas are actually the interaction between a fungus and a plant. Although there are many different types of mycorrhizae, the only one crop farmers need to be concerned about is arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), as 65% of plant species associate with it. A microscopic view of an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus growing on a corn root...
Categories: Cover Crops
By Darren Chan
Published Nov 2, 2018
Target CropsTomato vegetables, peppers, carrots and lots of other vegetable crops. Tomato vegetables are moderately prone to root knot nematodes. Where to find All over the world, in warm temperate climatesBrief infoRoot knot nematodes are small eelworms living in soil and be plant parasites once they use tomato roots as their nurseries. Usually nematodes enter tomato roots through plant’s small injuries. With the increase of number of nematodes, healthy plant’s roots are destroyed, and twisty galls to take their place...
Categories: Agribusiness, Cover Crops, Irrigation
Published Oct 21, 2018
It can be read here and you will see it has grown to 100 pages, which is where we expect it to stay going forward. Direct Driller Issue 3 Issue 3 Of Direct Driller magazine. The conservation agriculture magazine created by farmers for farmers. Subscribe for your free print copy at http://www. directdriller...
Categories: Cover Crops
Published Oct 10, 2018
Part 1: Know Your True Cost of Production Why Your TCOP Matters How to Calculate Your TCOP Part 2: Take the Emotions Out of Your Marketing Plan Why You Need a Plan How to Create a Marketing Matrix How to Determine Your Marketable Inventory How to Use a Marketing Matrix Why You Need an Accountability Partner Part 3: Replace Dead Assets What Are Dead Assets? What Are Productive Assets? Part 4: Manage Your Cash Flow Conversion Cycle What a Cash Flow Conversion Cycle Is How to Speed Up Incoming Flows How to Postpone Outgoing Flows How to Minimize Paying Interest Part 5: Start Using Cover Crops . . . And Get Paid To Do It Why Cover Crops Make Sense How to Obtain Funding Part 6: Take Your Own Soil Samples Why You Should Get Your Own Sampler Who Else You Can Get Consultations From How This Approach Helps You Save Part 7: Bid Out Inputs Why You Should Be In Contact With Multiple Dealers What the Ground Rules Are For Getting Multiple Bids Part 8: Manage Your Fields By Zone How to Create Productivity Zones How to Use Productivity Zones How the Management System Affects Profits Part 9: Focus on Efficiency Over Growth Why Efficiency Matters More Than Size How to Increase Revenue How to Reduce Costs How Increased Efficiency Can Lead to Scaling Part 10: Know Your Optimal Scale . ...
Categories: Agribusiness, Marketing, Cover Crops
By Darren Chan
Published Sep 20, 2018
Rose ,so romantic and lovely. It is really a pleasure to plant roses. Today when you come to your beloved rose bushes, you are surprised to find that your lovely roses are covered by a dusting of white powder on buds,stems and leaves. These white powder makes your roses,once beautiful and heathy,look sick and ugly. Turns out that your roses have powdery mildew...
Categories: Agribusiness, Cover Crops, Organic
Published Aug 24, 2018
From Direct Driller Magazine: Issue 2Written by Frédéric ThomasLike many farmers, Michel Mercier first got into direct drilling based on the economic savings it offered. He first worked with an SE Horsch then onto an AT Köckerling, then onto a SD Kuhn, only to find that the drill is only an ingredient, only part of a solution, purely the way to do something. He soon realised that the key to success lies in the soil, it’s quality and its structure. On his soils with low potential (gravelly to stony silts with a good proportion of flint) in the North-East of Chartres (Eure-et-Loir), he re-taught himself to respect the soil by means of TMCE (Mineral Technology Culture and Breeding – www. tmce...
Categories: Cover Crops
By Darren Chan
Published Jul 4, 2018
Magnesium’s effect is essential for grape,it can be called “a large number of elements” for grapes,and the demand is simliar to phosphorus. Even the magnesium content of grape leaves is higher than that of phosphorus. It is directly involved in physiological and biochemical processes such as photosynthesis and enzyme activation of grapes,and is one of the mineral elements necessary for normal growth and development of grapes and improvement of fruit quality. Chlorophyll synthesis and photosynthesisMagnesium accounts for 2. 7% of the molecular weight of chlorophyll...
Categories: Agribusiness, Cover Crops, Specialty/Vegetable
Published Oct 5
In infographic form, here’s a quick overview of cover crops based on the AgFuse Original titled “On the Offensive with Cover Crops.” To read the full article, you can visit https://agfuse.com/article/on-the-offensive-with-cover-crops-2.
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