Robust Results from Research on Organic Cover Cropping
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are showing that farmers can fine-tune their use of cover crops to help manage costs and maximize benefits in commercial organic production systems. ARS horticulturist Eric Brennan has helped design a long-term investigation examining several different cover cropping strategies for an annual organic lettuce-broccoli production system. Six of the strategies involved cover cropping every winter, and the other two involved cover cropping every fourth winter. Studied were rye, mustard, and a legume-rye mix cover crops.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are showing that farmers can fine-tune their use of cover crops to help manage costs and maximize benefits in commercial organic production systems. ARS horticulturist Eric Brennan has helped design a long-term investigation examining several different cover cropping strategies for an annual organic lettuce-broccoli production system. Six of the strategies involved cover cropping every winter, and the other two involved cover cropping every fourth winter. Studied were rye, mustard, and a legume-rye mix cover crops. The legume-rye and rye cover crops produced approximately 25 percent more dry matter biomass than the mustard crops. However, effectively suppressing weeds with the legume-rye crops required seeding at three times the typical rate. More details are provided in the February 2012 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
