It's cover crop planting season here on the farm! Cover crops are all the rage in the farming world these days but you may not have heard of them or what they are. This week, I'll talk a bit about what cover crops are, how they're used, and the benefits (and challenges) they have.
Cover crops are simply a crop or mix of crops that are planted without the intention to harvest said crop for sale. Cover crops include a diversity of crops including grasses, legumes, brassicas and more. Each group of cover crops have their own strengths and weaknesses and when combined in mixes can really enhance and improve soil, water and farms.
Why would a farmer plant a crop and take on the extra labor and expense with no intention of harvesting the crop? The answer to that question is essentially that the cover crop provides some benefit to the farm, farmer, and soil that offset the cost and labor of planting the crop. Farmers plant cover crops to improve soil, prevent erosion, provide habitat for beneficial insects, suppress weeds, and beautify their farm.
On our farm we use cover crops primarily to suppress weeds and improve the soil though we do see many of the other benefits on our farm as well. We've seen a steady uptick in our soil organic matter as we've implemented cover crops across our farm. Generally speaking, the higher soil organic matter you have the healthier your soil is. Additionally, we've observed that anywhere we've had cover crops on our farm we tend to see less weed competition for subsequent vegetable crops.
Cover crops do have some drawbacks though the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. The first is the cost and time involved to manage them. About 30% of our total seed budget is spent on cover crops. Additionally, it takes time to to plant and terminate the cover crops. Related - sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate. If it rains when we want to terminate our cover crop it can form seeds and become a weed. That's happened to us a time or two. Finally, dealing with the plant matter left behind can be either costly or difficult. Sometimes tools plug up or don't work as well as they should if the cover crop is too large when it's terminated.
Overall, cover crops are a huge benefit to our farm. Our farm believes healthy soil = healthy food = healthy people and cover crops are a vital part of that equation.
