With the harvest season fast approaching, Peoples Company Land Managers are working to finalize plans for fall 2020 cover crops. Extending living green cover after the cash crop is harvested has numerous benefits to farmland:
- reduces erosion, keeping valuable topsoil on the farm
- increases organic matter
- increases soil biodiversity and biological activity
- scavenges nutrients, keeping expensive crop inputs in the field rather than in our water sources
Cover crops can be flown on before the cash crop is harvested or planted post-harvest. There is risk and reward to both, with Mother Nature typically deciding the fate.
Aerial applications provide more control over timing and the ability to offer the cover crop a longer window to grow. On a leased farm, a non-farming landowner can coordinate the aerial application without worry about timing of harvest. The risk is gaining good seed-to-soil contact for cover crop germination.
Read more on this story on the Peoples Company website
