|
 |
|
|
|||
 |
 
  
|
 |
|
Sep. 27, 2012 BrownfieldAgNews reports: An environmental scientist with the Iowa Soybean Association says he's seeing increased interest in cover crops this fall as a way of holding nitrogen in the soil following the very dry 2012 growing season. Chris Jones says the lower yields caused by the drought mean more N is being left in the fields. Jones says a cover crop planted this fall can help sequester-or tie up-that nitrogen that would otherwise be lost. "It's there, tied up by the cover crops-and when they die, then it becomes available to the crops in subsequent years," Jones says, "and so we believe it's an economically favorable practice to try." Jones says the current seed and application costs for small-grain cover crops-from $29 to $35 per acre-compare very favorably with the value of the nitrogen they can sequester in the soil. Not to mention the other potential benefits, including reduced soil erosion and better downstream water quality. But won't a cover crop consume precious soil moisture needed by next year's corn or soybean crop? "There's a lot of evidence that cover crops like rye and oats and radishes, they actually act as a living mulch and prevent evaporation of water from the soil-and so they actually can enhance the moisture conditions for the crops next year," Jones says. Another question is whether there is enough soil moisture for cover crops to germinate this fall. But Jones says cover crop and forage specialists have assured him that most cover crops require very little moisture to germinate. Tweet |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
