The Next Step: Adding Cover Crop To A No-Till System

[Jayrock37343]

This is a very very good video. I am glad you posted this.

[shoopdeedoop]

I believe the worms are the major contributors to aeration, since all the food they need is at the surface. Once the worms eat the dry/rotting vegetable matter they take it deeper into the ground via their feces(worm castings)

[celainea]

Natives always planted corn with squash & lima beans. They alternated areas with these crops, followed by land with grasses: peanuts, ryes & wheat to attract horses and buffalo who left their fertilizers. Fish cleanings & crushed bones were also thrown on top. The land stayed fertile for centuries.

[takadi]

What do you guys do to "kill" the cover crop to make room for the new crop? Do you mow down the stalks? Do you just let them die on its own? Do you cover it up to block out the light? I'm afraid that the cover crop would just take over and become a weed itself

[soilguy100]

Dan's right, CCs also use moisture, but they also improve water infiltration and retention. We've started some research here (deep south Texas) to determine the pay-back for irrigating CCs to put the economics to the test. Improvements to soil fertility, weed control, organic matter, etc. are a part of the whole pay-back issue, and they will be included in the analysis as well. Great video!

[switchgrassfuel]

grate video.

[stt60]

Knowledge is power, thank you,thank you for sharing your knowledge. I wish I had a fraction of knowledge that Mr. Forgey has.

[palui]

This is a must for all large farms. Even if they're not organic, maintaining soil structure is vital to the future of farming. My opinion is that the structure of the soil, including the microbial activity, is more important than the chemicals in it.

[gruntlesnoot]

Great Video ! How many people have the patience to persist for years to see the benefits...? But these are the kind of things we have to do if we still want to have food in the future.

[KayakFisher01]

It would be nice if you could include the SARE pdf link in the video discription.

[cookingupastory]

@KayakFisher01 Good idea -> done! =)

[BackOnElectone]

Very interesting, I thought tilling the soil is to help add oxygen and loosen the soil since compact soil is hard for root to penetrate. How would home grower apply this knowledge? When weed is competing with cover crop, what do you do?

[cookingupastory]

@BackOnElectone No-till helped build Forgey's soil health and made a rich aggregate. What increased it even more (and faster) was adding a cover crop into his rotation. From what I could see, his soil was very welcoming to crops wanting to spread their roots. As for how a home grower might apply it - you might want to check out the free pdf from SARE. The URL address can be found at 13:07 (in video). Forgey highly recommends it and refers to it regularly himself. Hope this helps.

[beadella1958]

@BackOnElectone the soil in nature never needs tilling and it slowly builds up organic matter and all the organisms that go along with it so as to nurture and support any plant that grows in it. The perfect system.............only greed messed it up in the first place. Not talking about the farmers, talking about big agribiz...

[vidaripollen]

@BackOnElectone in the first place compact starts with using the heavy machines to plough.the cure s worse than and also cause of the disease here.ironical?

[jetle25]

@BackOnElectone Tilling does aerate and adds oxygen. But it's a big disturbance and it basically is a huge flush of nutrients for the microorganisms. You end up with weed seeds germinating and lots of carbon is used up because of the flush of bacteria growth. To prevent compaction you plant many types of cover crop to aid in soil health. Like what he said radish or turnips to aerate the soil, legumes to add nitrogen, and then you get free residue for organic matter. It's win win

[GREENPOWERSCIENCE]

EXCELLENT WORK!

[WhiteTiger333]

Outstanding! And what beautiful soil! I didn't know anyone was doing cover crops on that much land. Yes, we badly need to restore the tall and short grass prairie soil as much as possible to their former richness.

Hmmmm...yes, in a drought year, cover crops would use water, but wouldn't they also hold water and soil integrity much better than stripped land? I don't see that as a disadvantage, but I'm quite sure Dan knows much better than I do.

[cookingupastory]

@WhiteTiger333 I think he speaks primarily from the area he farms in (central South Dakota), which receives, on average, around 18" of rain a year. That's not a lot, so every inch for cash crops is important - but so is building the soil's health, as he points out. And, yes, the cover crops do hold some of the moisture - but also use some of it, too!

[halfblackmaniac]

dope.......thank you for sharing.

end of line.

[WellnessMafia]

Thanks for this friend :)

[Socksee]

Thanks so much for this fantastic video. I learned so much!

[cookingupastory]

so did I, @Socksee ! I loved learning the way Forgey is building organic matter and what soil armor is. His soil was beautiful!

[djdnauk1977]

great video, cover crops are a small part of "permaculture" processes... although permaculture is more for gardens/allotments and local growing, than large scale agriculture... i would recommend anyone with a garden.allotment or even a balcony looks into permaculture though :)

[MRSketch09]

Pretty interesting stuff.