Category: Regenerative Agriculture
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Managing Cover Crops Profitably, 3rd Edition Foreword
SARE Outreach
2007 | 244 pages
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Managing Cover Crops Profitably cover
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Cover crops slow erosion, improve soil, smother weeds, enhance nutrient and moisture availability, help control many pests and bring a host of other benefits to your farm. At the same time, they can reduce costs, increase profits and even create new sources of income. You’ll reap dividends on your cover crop investments for years, because their benefits accumulate over the long term.
Increasing energy costs will have a profound effect on farm economics in coming years. As we go to press, it is impossible to predict how fast energy costs will increase, but since cover crop economics are rooted in nitrogen dynamics (how much N you save or produce with cover crops), fuel costs (the cost of N and trips across the field) and commodity prices, energy prices will certainly impact the economics of cover crop use.
Economic comparisons in the 2nd edition were based on the old economy of two-dollar corn, twenty-cent nitrogen and cheap gas. Some studies showed that cover crops become more profitable as the price of nitrogen increases. We retained some of these excellent studies because data from new studies is not yet available. What we do know is that cover crops can help you to increase yields, save on nitrogen costs, reduce trips across the field and also reap many additional agronomic benefits.
There is a cover crop to fit just about every farming situation. The purpose of this book is to help you find which ones are right for you.
Farmers around the country are increasingly looking at the long-term contributions of cover crops to their whole farm system. Some of the most successful are those who have seen the benefits and are committed to making cover crops work for them. They are re-tooling their cropping systems to better fit cover crop growth patterns, rather than squeezing cover crops into their existing system, time permitting.
This 3rd edition of Managing Cover Crops Profitably aims to capture farmer and other research results from the past ten years. We verified the information from the 2nd edition, added new results and updated farmer profiles and research data throughout. We also added two new chapters.
Brassicas and Mustards lays out the current theory and management of cover crops in the BRASSICACEAE family. Brassica cover crops are thought to play a role in management of nematodes, weeds and disease by releasing chemical compounds from decomposing residue. Results are promising but inconsistent. Try brassicas on small plots and consult local expertise for additional information.
Managing Cover Crops in Conservation Tillage Systems addresses the management complexities of reduced tillage systems. If you are already using cover crops, the chapter will help you reduce tillage. If you are already using conservation tillage, it shows you how to add or better manage cover crops. Cover crops and conservation tillage team up to reduce energy use on your farm and that means more profits.
We have tried to include enough information for you to select and use cover crops appropriate to your operation. We recommend that you define your reasons for growing a cover crop—the section, Selecting the Best Cover Crops for Your Farm can help with this—and take as much care in selecting and managing cover crops as you would a cash crop.
Regional and site-specific factors can complicate cover crop management. No book can adequately address all the variables that make up a crop production system. Before planting a cover crop, learn as much as you can from this book and talk to others who are experienced with that cover crop.
We hope that this updated and expanded edition of Managing Cover Crops Profitably will lead to the successful use of cover crops on a wider scale as we continue to increase the sustainability of our farming systems.
Andy Clark, Communications Director
SARE Outreach
June 2007
Thursday, 7/14, 1pm (est) – AEA’s Dir. of Education David Miller explains how a shift to regenerative agriculture using AEA systems can help protect your yield.
‘Off the charts’ chemical shortages hit U.S. farms
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/off-charts-chemical-shortages-hit-us-farms-2022-06-27/
Soybean fields are inspected as part of University of Wisconsin research trial into whether the weed killer dicamba drifted away from where it was sprayed in Arlington, Wisconsin, U.S., August 2, 2018. REUTERS/Tom Polansek/File Photo
CHICAGO, June 27 (Reuters) – U.S. farmers have cut back on using common weedkillers, hunted for substitutes to popular fungicides and changed planting plans over persistent shortages of agricultural chemicals that threaten to trim harvests.
Spraying smaller volumes of herbicides and turning to less-effective fungicides increase the risk for weeds and diseases to dent crop production at a time when global grain supplies are already tight because the Ukraine war is reducing the country’s exports.
Interviews with more than a dozen chemical dealers, manufacturers, farmers and weed specialists showed shortages disrupted U.S. growers’ production strategies and raised their costs.
Shawn Inman, owner of distributor Spinner Ag Incorporated in Zionsville, Indiana, said supplies are the tightest in his 24-year career.
“This is off the charts,” Inman said. “Everything was delayed, delayed, delayed.”
Shortages further reduce options for farmers battling weeds that developed resistance to glyphosate, the key ingredient in the commonly used Roundup herbicide, after decades of overuse in the United States.
Prices for glyphosate and glufosinate, another widely used herbicide sold under the brand Liberty, jumped more than 50% from last year, dealers said, padding profit at companies like Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE), BASF SE (BASFn.DE) and Corteva Inc (CTVA.N).
The U.S. Agriculture Department said it heard from farmers and food companies concerned about whether agribusinesses are hiking prices for goods like chemicals, seeds and fertilizer to boost profit, not simply because of supply and demand factors. The agency has launched an inquiry into competition in the sector, and some watchdog groups said it is moving too slowly.
Agrichemical companies blame the COVID-19 pandemic, transportation delays, a lack of workers and extreme weather for shortages. Fertilizer and some seeds are also in short supply globally. read more
SUPPLY CHAIN STALLED
More difficulties are on the horizon, as BASF, which formulates glufosinate, told Reuters the supply situation will not improve significantly next year.
“It’s going to take more time than what our customers, farmers and retailers would have thought,” said Scott Kay, vice president of U.S. crops for BASF.
Tennessee farmer Jason Birdsong said he abandoned plans to plant soybeans on 100 acres after waiting months to receive Liberty he ordered from Nutrien Ag Solutions. He ultimately received less than half his order for 125 gallons and planted corn on the land instead. Birdsong said he is better able to control weeds in corn than soybeans.
Read more at the link above~~
Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago, Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Matthew Lewis
MSU animal science professor exploring environmental benefits of regenerative agriculture
Michigan State University C.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture Jason Rowntree is examining the benefits and applicability of regenerative agriculture-based livestock systems.
Regenerative agriculture is a relatively new approach to livestock farming that emphasizes the reduction of farming inputs and restoring ecosystem services such as soil carbon sequestration and improved water cycling.
“These regenerative agriculture principles suggest that modern livestock systems can be redesigned to better capitalize on animals’ ecological niches as biological up-cyclers and may be necessary to fully regenerate some landscapes,” wrote Rowntree in a paper recently published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
“Regenerative agriculture is a newer movement in agriculture with the overarching premise of trying to improve land while simultaneously growing food – meaning its aim is improving the land, improving the ecosystem, and improving productivity with certain ecological boundaries.”
Rowntree worked with Quantis and General Mills, as well as White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia, to conduct a whole-farm life cycle assessment from grazing land that was originally converted from degraded cropland. The team compared production outputs, greenhouse gas emissions, environmental footprints and soil health outcomes to a conventional, commodity production system of each respective species.
White Oaks Farms transitioned to regenerative agriculture practices in 1995. The 20-year study of the farm’s indicated considerably improvements in soil health and carbon sequestration in a transition from degraded cropland to perennial pasture.
The paper indicates benefits to a multi-species pasture rotation system that raises multiple types of livestock animals. Rowntree said in the context of this experiment, land use should also be considered.
“When comparing required land between the two systems for food production, (the regenerative techniques) required two-and-a-half times more land when compared to business as usual agriculture. Thus, while our model indicates that the farm studied can simultaneously produce protein while regenerating land, considerably greater land area is needed when compared to today’s agriculture,” he said.
Rowntree suggests these types of studies can add to the ongoing conversation around preserving farmland and protecting the environment, while producing food and remaining profitable.
“These complexities must be considered in the global debate of agricultural practice and land,” he said. “Do we throw this system out because it takes more land? No. Do we throw today’s agriculture out because it requires more energy? No. What we do is we try to blend the two and take some of these principles and put them into larger-scale agriculture to get better outcomes.”
~~read more at the link above.