cover cropping News
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Defra Sings Praises of Cover Crops – Vertical Strorage Tanks For All Farming Applications
Defra has recently been hailing the many merits of cover crops as part of a long-term approach to farming success, according to Farmers Weekly. Cover crops deliver a range of soil and environmental benefits and they fit in well with spring cropping. Experts are advising that cover crops should in fact be viewed as part of an integrated management strategy to help with various faming challenges. ...
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Satellites help keep Chesapeake Bay clean
Space-age technologies to help Maryland implement and monitor an expanded winter cover crop program that is vital to the Chesapeake Bay's health are being developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Beltsville, Md. Soil scientist Gregory McCarty and colleagues Dean Hively, Ali Sadeghi and Megan Lang with the ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory in Beltsville are ...
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Why You Should Consider Cover Crops for Your Farm
The state of soybean planting around the country right now ranges from “finished” to “about to start,” depending on geography and weather. But even if you’re still focused on getting your first soybean seed in the ground, it’s not a bad idea to start thinking about what you’ll plant after harvest. If those plans include cover crops, you might start seeing ...
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Self-seeding: an innovative management system
US researchers have investigated the potential for rye and wheat cover crops to perpetuate themselves, saving time and money for farmers while providing environmental benefits Winter cover crops provide important ecological functions that include nutrient cycling and soil cover. Although cover crop benefits to agroecosystems are well documented, cover crop use in agronomic farming systems ...
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Cover Crops Capture Nutrients to the Benefit of Farmers and Water Quality
Many factors contribute to the excess phosphorous that stimulates algal systems in bodies of water such as Lake Erie. Sources of excess phosphorous include urban stormwater, factories, sewers, household wastes and lawn fertilizer, and in some areas runoff from fertilizers or manure applied to fields. Fortunately, many farmers are already doing their part to improve water. For example, cover ...
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Cover Crop Workshops Featured at the Iowa Power Farming Show
All you ever wanted to know about cover crops will be in one place next week. Whether you use cover crops or are still evaluating them, save time and money by attending the Cover Crop Workshops at this year’s Iowa Power Farming Show, January 28-30, in Des Moines, Iowa. The Workshops will feature grain and livestock farmers with on-farm cover crop experience, as well as other experts. ...
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March 29 Soil Health Workshop Focuses on Benefits of Cover Crops
Farmers who want to improve their soil’s health and cut input costs all while benefiting Ohio’s water quality may want to consider adding cover crops to their fields. Additional benefits for growers to add cover crops such as oilseed radish, cereal rye, Austrian winter pea and crimson clover include reducing soil erosion and nutrient losses, according to Alan Sundermeier, an Ohio ...
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Choice of winter cover crop mixture steers summer crop yield
Scientists from Wageningen University & Research demonstrate that the productivity of a next main crop can be manipulated through the choice of species in a preceding winter cover crop mixture. They report their latest findings in the Journal of Applied Ecology of 2nd of June. With their publication, the scientist agree with recommendations of FAO to included cover crops in rotations, on ...
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Star fruit could be the new “star” of Florida agriculture
It’s not just oranges that grow in Florida. Carambola, or star fruit as most in the United States call it, is gaining popularity. One researcher from Florida International University is researching how cover crops can help the sustainability of star fruit farms.“Tropical fruit production has become a prominent practice in Miami-Dade County,” says Ariel Freidenreich. “For ...
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Straw residue helps keep nitrogen on the farm
Scientists are exploring ways to reduce non-point pollution from agriculture. A new study finds that using straw residue in conjunction with legume cover crops reduces leaching of nitrogen into waterways, but may lower economic return. Agriculture is the largest source of nitrogen non-point pollution to waterways in the United States, flowing into streams and rivers via erosion from farmlands, ...
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Conservation Tillage Conference March 2-3 Offers Tips for Farmers in Tight Economy
High input costs coupled with low grain prices anticipated in 2016 means that growers have to make smarter, calculated choices to grow profitable crops this year. Also important is the need to build and maintain healthy soils to help ensure good water quality, said Randall Reeder, a retired Ohio State University Extension agricultural engineer. Reeder is an organizer of the annual Conservation ...
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Workshop Discusses Whether Agriculture Can Significantly Reduce Off-Site Movement of Soluble Nutrients
Growers who plant cover crops and vegetative systems in agriculture will find that it can tie up phosphorus in a stable phosphorus form that remains in the soil which can increase phosphorus use efficiency, according to a soil researcher from Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. The question of whether agriculture can significantly reduce off-site ...
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NFU demands action over nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ) proposals
Defra (the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) must make substantial alterations to its proposals to change Nitrate Vulnerable Zones before any action is taken to implement them, the National Farmers' Union warns. The NFU has submitted a list of 45 recommendations for alterations as part of its submission on the proposals, which it estimates will cost farmers hundreds of ...
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Applications for NRCS Organic Initiative Due March 30
California agricultural producers who are certified organic or transitioning to organic production may qualify for technical and financial assistance through a national organic initiative administered by USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Applications for the second ranking period of 2012 are due at NRCS offices by March 30, for funding consideration during fiscal year 2012. ...
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Keeping a pulse on the soil
Leaving behind stubble is not ideal when shaving, but it’s a good practice to leave behind crop “stubble” after harvest. According to soil scientist Frank Larney, crop residue anchors the soil against wind and water erosion. Avoiding bare soils is one part of a soil conservation package he and his research team demonstrate in a 12-year experiment growing pulses in southern ...
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New Tool Offers Growers Easy Option to Measure Soil Organic Matter Content
Researchers with Ohio State University's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences have developed a new tool that allows farmers to easily predict soil organic matter content and can help them make decisions about whether or not to sell crop residue. The tool can benefit growers by providing information for more timely planting and harvesting, reducing operating costs, increasing ...
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Project Looks At Water Uptake in Beet Crops – Rainwater Harvesting Tanks Reduce Irrigation Costs
Farmers Guardian recently reported on an interesting project being conducted by the University of Nottingham. The four year research project is looking at ways of enhancing water uptake in sugar beet crops that will cut costs and reduce irrigation. The impetus behind the project lies in the fact that UK sugar beet crops lose around ten per cent of available water through poor water uptake. The ...
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New Focused Conservation Opportunities for Water and Habitat in Central Valley
The USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in California announces four new focus areas where $8.5 million will be made available through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to help producers undertake water quality and water conservation projects. Applications are due April 20, 2012. "All of these new project areas are being made possible through an NRCS national ...
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Iowa’s Corn Farmers Celebrate Soil & Water Conservation Week
Iowa has 71,665 miles of streams and more than 11,000 different types of soil. Both resources are precious to the productivity of our state. Farmers celebrate soil and water every day but, Soil and Water Conservation Week April 28 to May 2, is a good time to recognize Iowa’s innovations to conserve both soil and water resources. “We haven’t reached perfection, yet” said ...
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Generate® by Agnition Now Approved for Organic Production
Agnition®, a brand of Ralco, announced today that it has launched OMRI Listed® Generate®, a crop enhancement product to boost soil and plant health for organic production. This is the latest product in an extension of Agnition’s organic line which now includes crop enhancements and hay and silage preservatives. Generate is a natural product that utilizes patented Microbial ...
By Agnition
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