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4. Soil Management Considerations
Cover Crops
Cover cropping is in line with the Healthy
Soil Principles and can be an effective
management strategy. Cover crops are plants
that can provide soil protection between the
principal crop growing season, or in row crops
or orchards they can be grown year-round.
The many benefits of cover cropping include:
Physical/Chemical
•
Minimize compaction
•
Reduce erosion from wind and water
•
Improve soil moisture
•
Provide nutrition to cash crop
•
Reduce water quality degradation that
is caused by using excessive inorganic
nutrient additions
Biological
•
Introduce diversity to the system
•
Maintain or increase organic matter
content
•
Suppress excessive weeds and break
pest cycles
Cover crop residues have numerous
competing uses, such as removal for
animal feed or for biofuel or onsite or other
industrial production; or return to soil as an
amendment.
Issues to consider when cover cropping in
water-limited environments:
•
What is the cover crop’s water
requirement?
•
What is its drought tolerance?
•
When is irrigation water available?
(Many irrigation waters are only
available when snow melt or monsoon
rains feed them, usually April through
October, and this may determine the
best time for planting a particular cover
crop.)
•
What are the cover crop’s
germination and growing temperature
requirements?
•
Is the cover crop easy to manage? Will
it die easily when sprayed or plowed
down? (Watch out for any tendency of
the crop to become weedy!)
•
How much residue will this crop
produce? (E.g., is there the possibility
of harvesting 70% and leaving 30% as
residue?)