There are no gaps in this undervine cover crop of Coprinellus disseminatus. No gaps is a good thing in a #covercrop. But does an inky cap have the right properties for the vineyard?

Remembering the bad old days... Now we look to cover crops to do some of the weed management. These weed recommendations from 1957 are a reminder of how much safer the chemical part is these days, but still worth reducing.

Burning trees for energy is not carbon-neutral! - Burning trees emits more CO2 per unit energy than fossil fuels - Harvesting trees for energy releases carbon that would otherwise have remained stored in the forest - It often takes decades for CO2 from burning to be re-absorbed by new tree growth

Are you interested in learning how to establish cover cropping on your own land? Join us from 9 am - noon Saturday, May 2, for a field day that will explore all things cover crops! Register here: www.lorettocommunity.org/event/cover-... #covercropping #farm #event #MarionCounty #Kentucky

Cover crops: 25-50% reduction in purchased fertiliser costs within 5 years. Nitrogen-fixing species replace $40-80/acre of synthetic inputs. 20M hectares in the US now. That number is up 50% since 2017. Farmers adopting this are not making an environmental statement.

The National Cover Crop Survey is live: missouri.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... A wide range of farmer experienvce with #covercrops will help target future research and outreach to the most important needs.

Urea price just jumped 50%, and field corn is at only $4.30. Under what conditions will it pay to plant an N-fixing #covercrop instead this spring? Is that idea too radical?

When testing living mulch as a #covercrop system, the default expectation has to be that the cover crop will compete too much with the main crop and that pest pressure will be higher. If the new system is an exception, the burden of proof is high if one is to be taken seriously.

Virtual Field Day: Cover Crop and Manure Timing to Maximize Water Quality and Corn Yield Iowa Learning Farms (ILF), in partnership with the Iowa Nutrient Research Center, will host a virtual field day on Thursday, Mar. 12, at 1 p.m. CT. The event, which is available at no cost, will feature a live…

Virtual Field Day: Cover Crop and Manure Timing to Maximize Water Quality and Corn Yield

Iowa Learning Farms (ILF), in partnership with the Iowa Nutrient Research Center, will host a virtual field day on Thursday, Mar. 12, at 1 p.m. CT. The event, which is available at no cost, will feature a live discussion with Dan Andersen, associate professor and extension agriculture engineering specialist at Iowa State University, Raj Raman, Morrill Professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering and Philip Rockson, agricultural and biosystems engineering graduate research assistant at ISU.

iowalearningfarms.wordpress.com

Biofuels are another driver. Corn, soy, canola, and sugarcane all are being increasingly used to power vehicles instead of people. This is a shockingly inefficient use of land; EVs can go *300x* farther powered by a hectare of solar panels vs a hectare of crops! 10/

📖New Resource - Cover Crops Guide🌱 The UK’s first accessible, independent, farmer-led and scientifically supported farmers’ guide on #CoverCropping from AHDB is now available via Agricology's resources page. ➡️ agricology.co.uk/resource/cov... Founded by @angusgowthorpe.bsky.social

How do you breed tomatoes with both the disease resistance organic production requires and the superior flavor organic consumers expect? Three experienced breeders will describe their approach in this eOrganic webinar on March 24 eorganic.org/node/36450 Jim Myers, Julie Dawson and Jared Zystro

Two keys to #covercrop success are #faststart and #nogaps. This grower met the first by using a planter for seeding when other methods had failed. But the covercrop does not suppress weeds in the wide gaps between rows. That managent goal is met with herbicides. www.farmprogress.com/cover-crops/...

The Cornell AgriTech Summer Scholars program is back! It is a paid research undergraduate research internship at one of the worlds premier horticulture institutions. We are now accepting applications for a new cohort of excellent undergraduates for summer 2026. cals.cornell.edu/cornell-agri...

Impressive work by Oleksandr Zhuikov et al on improving sustainability of production despite the Khakovka field site being on the front line of a hot war. doi.org/10.15421/012... They achieved better NUE, WUE and climate resilience by leveraging biological processes in the soil.

New Research: Keller et al PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Subsoil compaction worsens when intervals between compaction events are shorter than soil structure recovery times #Covercrops can reduce recovery times when managed for that goal. Roots make holes and can make soil column support weight.

Jeff Liebert & colleagues looked at adoption of #covercrops among NY and CA vegetable farmers. 13% of cover crop users thought it used a lot of labor, but 26% of non users thought so. Can extension about low-labor approaches increase adoption? link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Not as hard as it seems? Labor challenges and opportunities for agroecological practices in the United States - Agriculture and Human Values

Agroecology has been promoted as an alternative to industrial agriculture for many reasons, including the social and environmental benefits associated with agroecological practices. Yet, agroecologica...

link.springer.com

This research adds important understanding of the nitrogen cycle to reduce nitrate leaching. Root growth and plant decomposition influence risk. We know the functional models, but need to fill in parameter values for many production systems. Especially to get max value from #covercrops.

Brett van Heyningen@brettvhaafc.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Sandy soils on PEI means farming practices can directly impact water. 🌱💧 #AgLivingLab Research from Dr. Yefang Jiang shows swapping red clover for soybeans in crop rotations can cut nitrogen in groundwater by 17%, in estuaries by 8%, and sea lettuce biomass by 24%. Learn more: ow.ly/RJIT50XgtLe

New research shows that, unfortunately, Palmer amaranth is not sensitive to rye allelopathy. Competition remains the mode of action for this useful #covercrop for managing this bad weed. Read it in Weed Science - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

UMass Amherst Biology is recruiting a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the area of Plant Physiology. Deadline Nov 1. Please spread the word and apply! careers.massachusetts.edu/mob/en-us/jo...

ASHS is committed to promoting and encouraging national and international interest in scientific research and education in all branches of horticulture and plant science. Join ASHS today! https://ow.ly/i2HY50VcRvo

At 1:12 "Dedicating land to biofuels is actually worse for the climate than burning fossil fuels." He goes on...supplying 25% of aviation energy with soybased "sustainable aviation fuel" requires clearing an area about the size of India. Do physiologists and agronomists know how crazy this is?

Richard Waite@waiterich.bsky.social · last yr.

Should we power airplanes with food crops? Check out our new video, part of @worldresources.bsky.social’s Stories to Watch 2025 series, where I break down how crop-based biofuels are on the front line of the discussion about alternative aviation fuels and what gets to count as “sustainable.”

Roller-crimped rye is good cover-crop management for soybeans, but it severely inhibits other crops. Be wary trying it with vegetables or sunflowers. Here is an example of what to expect. youtu.be/ge2xFuwgATs

💥NEW in NATURE GEOSCIENCE💥 Soil carbon sequestration by long-term #nitrogen & #phosphorus fertilization doi.org/10.1038/s415... rdcu.be/eFzmh Increase of C #sequestration by N and P #fertilization in the world-longest 180-year fertilization experiment in Rothamsted #soil #agriculture #CO2

I like that most of the recommended management actions are already standard practice on many farms. Therefore increased adoption is possible in the near term--with the right incentives.

Richard Waite@waiterich.bsky.social · last yr.

Check out our team’s new paper about reducing nitrogen losses in US row-crop agriculture, by @mikebadzmierowski.bsky.social. Nitrogen is essential for crop production, but its overuse reduces air and water quality and emits potent GHGs. This paper examines solutions. www.wri.org/research/red...

Finding beneficial management is a high research priority! "Cover crops’ effects on nitrous oxide [is] unclear, with variances ranging from increases to decreases in emissions. Research is needed to determine the conditions under which cover crop varieties lead to different direction..."

Richard Waite@waiterich.bsky.social · last yr.

Check out our team’s new paper about reducing nitrogen losses in US row-crop agriculture, by @mikebadzmierowski.bsky.social. Nitrogen is essential for crop production, but its overuse reduces air and water quality and emits potent GHGs. This paper examines solutions. www.wri.org/research/red...

"A global meta-analysis found that cover crops reduce nitrate leaching from croplands by an average of 69 percent, with the greatest benefits observed on increasingly sandier soils and from non-leguminous cover crops ." In the US Northeast, this requires planting *now* so the roots reach the N.

Richard Waite@waiterich.bsky.social · last yr.

Check out our team’s new paper about reducing nitrogen losses in US row-crop agriculture, by @mikebadzmierowski.bsky.social. Nitrogen is essential for crop production, but its overuse reduces air and water quality and emits potent GHGs. This paper examines solutions. www.wri.org/research/red...

Here is a nice story on the company at the heart of the Northeast US buckwheat world. It is not just a #covercrop! www.lancasterfarming.com/farming-news...

New Interest in Buckwheat Allows for Old Mill Growth in Penn Yan

Birkett Mills in Penn Yan, New York, has been processing buckwheat and wheat into flour since 1797.

lancasterfarming.com

This looks a lot like a #covercrop story!

Dr Paul Dorfman @drpauldorfman.bsky.social · last yr.

Um ... "In France, the vineyards are 3% of the agricultural area, and they are using 20% of the chemicals. In vineyards, for the soil there is a lot of treatments, so there’s a lot of compaction, and there is a lot of pesticides used." www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A wet spring put many prevented-planting acres into buckwheat in Yates County. When do you #killontime? Terminate #covercrop now and collect insurance or wait till harvest and collect $620 a ton from the mill in town? A triticale winter cover can follow either option.