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>> Natural plant communities are usually made of up of several different kinds of plants
but typically when farmers think about cover crops, they think of using only one species
of plant in any particular field.
>> Mainly at first, we didn't plant cover crops if you'd cut the corn for silage,
you'd have the corn stubble and you'd have winter weeds growing up in it
and you'd haul manure on that so your land was actually covered
but those winter weeds weren't putting a whole lot of organic matter or anything back
in the soil, no biomass to speak of.
And then we eventually got into planting rye, then I started in '83,
I think was the first vetch I planted and I liked it so well
when I planted it the next spring that I went to it on all my corn silage land;
it's a spindly little plant and it wouldn't cover the soil --
you didn't have your soil covered during the winter anyhow.
That didn't suit me, we eventually started to mix rye with it
and that seemed to be the ticket.
The vetch would climb up the stocks like a trellis effect and when you rolled it,
it would roll down as flat as this floor.
So the more plants you have growing in soil,
the more benefits you get from these individual plants.
Each one complements the other one to some degree, just like you see in nature;
you have different species growing side by side.
>> Mixtures of grasses and legumes can be very productive; the grass generates a large amount
of surface residue, while the legume fixes atmospheric nitrogen in the soil
through the nodules in its roots.
Mixtures which include radishes and turnips will loosen compacted soil and recycle nutrients.
>> Well, the cocktail mix is made up of anywhere from five to seven or eight different species,
like I use rye, hairy vetch, crimson clover, Austrian peas and the radishes.
This year, we threw some turnips in with it and like I say,
all those crops mixed together complement each other when they're growing.
I haven't used any nitrogen on my corn since 1996 and about the last four or five years,
I haven't used any Atrazine or DAP.
>> The greater the variety of plants you grow in your fields, the easier it will be
to build healthy soil and diversity doesn't need to be limited to cover crops,
think about planning for diversity when you schedule crop rotations.
As much as you can, aim for different kinds of plants in your rotations.
>> With crop rotations, we try to put it on a long term plan and never plant the same crop
in the same field two years in a row and we found many benefits from rotating crops
from not only from a weed control standpoint but from a disease control also,
particularly in peanuts and we try to always plant peanuts behind cotton and our corn
and I'm only on a three -- a four year rotation.
Now on soybeans, on a dry land situation, we usually plant wheat,
soybeans and then the following year is cotton.
In an irrigated situation, it's always corn, then cotton --
or either corn, then peanuts and we try to keep this rotation going
because it is very beneficial to us all; although this year, cotton crop has --
cotton prices are looking good and it's very tempting
to plant cotton behind cotton but I don't think we can do it.
>> And remember you're not alone; the Natural Resources Conservation Service is here
to give you the technical help you need to be successful with cover crops.
The NRCS also has programs to help offset some of your costs.
For more information on cover crops and crop rotation,
take a look at NRCS Standard Number 340 and 328.
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