cover cropping Articles
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Corn belt assessment of cover crop management and preferences
Surveying end-users about their use of technologies and preferences provides information for researchers and educators to develop relevant research and educational programs. A mail survey was sent to Corn Belt farmers during 2006 to quantify cover crop management and preferences. Results indicated that the dominant cereal cover crops in Indiana and Illinois are winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) ...
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Earth Innovations: Cover Cropping
Earth Innovations is a new series from Sound Agriculture that covers the up-and-coming techniques growers are deploying to keep their yields high and their land healthy for generations to come. In each blog post, we break down the benefits and challenges of incorporating new practices, using real growers’ experiences and the Sound Agronomy Team’s expertise. Cover crops are ...
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Self-seeded cereal cover crop effects on interspecific competition with corn
Perpetuating cereal cover crops through self-seeding may increase adoption by reducing risk and cost. Winter rye (Secale cereale L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and triticale (x Triticosecale Wittmack) were used to develop self-seeding cover crop systems in a soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]–corn (Zea mays L.) rotation. Cereal cover crops were planted in varying row spacing configurations and ...
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Family farms can be competitive by focusing on conservation and stewardship
While the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports a 40 percent decline in U.S. cropland soil erosion rates from 1982 to 2007, recent trends appear to challenge this progress. Record prices for corn and soybeans have diverted acres out of conservation programs and encouraged intensive production on a wide scale. Tree lines are cleared and wet areas drained, turning 120-acre farms into ...
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Hit the Spring Planting Target with Hydraulic Down Force
Will Hutchinson enjoys a good challenge, especially when it comes to improving production on his row crop, wheat and alfalfa farm near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. So when he saw the opportunity to leverage Ag Leader’s Hydraulic Down Force system to prevent a common problem and improve his planting operations on acres where he plants cover crops, he jumped at the chance. Two years later, ...
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SureForce Breaks Through the Challenges of No-Till
It is no secret that ground conditions and tillage practices present different challenges for growers during planting season. Those who practice no-till with cover crops can have the most difficult environments for planters when it comes to seed placement - specifically seed depth. Time and again our TechTrials reveal that no matter the farming practices, or ground conditions seed depth makes or ...
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2020 Planting Prep: How Hydraulic Downforce Can Help
What conditions will you face during spring planting? With 2019’s extreme weather patterns, what comes next is anyone’s guess. That’s why it’s smart to prepare now. Planting into wet soil is completely different from planting into dry, compacted soil. Yet the fundamental challenge is the same—putting seeds in the right place, at the right time, and at the right ...
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Benefits of minimum tillage case study
In Hungary, the MARGINS project is being conducted near Lake Balaton - the largest lake in Central Europe. The lake is renowned for its beauty and wildlife. Its surrounding hilly landscape is covered with rich brown forest soil. This landscape is, however, prone to soil erosion -in particular, rills develop when soil is weakened by excessive tillage and exposed to intense rainstorms. If not ...
By Syngenta
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Indigo’s partnership with Anheuser-Busch: a major step towards beneficial agriculture
The agriculture industry is currently one of the biggest contributors to human caused greenhouse gas emissions, but I believe that it is also one of the most hopeful solutions for slowing and reversing climate change. Agricultural crops have the potential to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and sequester it in the soil, and the sheer size of the ag industry makes this approach one of the only ...
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Harvesting Corn Stover and Soil Quality
Corn stover, left in fields after corn grain harvest, has been identified as a potential feedstock to help supply biofuel needed to offset a portion of the 14 million barrels of oils consumed daily by the U.S. transportation sector. It was projected to supply 256 million tons of the 1.4 billion tons of biomass (232 million Mg out of 1.3 billion Mg) estimated to be available each year. Corn ...
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Conservation: It’s the right thing to do
A fable of six blind men and an elephant originated centuries ago somewhere on the Indian continent. In it the blind men try to identify an elephant by touching only one part. According to the fable each man came to a different conclusion as to what the elephant was. The parable illustrates that though opinions may vary, there’s some truth to be found in all of them. That’s the way ...
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Let’s stop treating our soil like dirt
One of the most underappreciated resources on our planet, soil does much more than grow crops The United Nations’ International Year of Soils is hardly a media darling. Maybe it’s because many people are like me, who recall Mom’s words: “Take off your shoes! Don’t bring dirt into the house!” With all the challenges in the world today, why would we recognize ...
By Ensia
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