Cover Crops in Organic Production

With harvest nearing and preparing for next years crop on growers minds, we wanted to briefly discuss cover crops. Cover crops have gained popularity in both conventional and organic operations in the past 5 to 10 years. In this video, Brad Dixon discusses the reasons he sees his organic producers using cover crops, as well as the yield response he has seen.

If you have any questions regarding organic farming, feel free to reach out to Brad or the BigYield team anytime.

Video Transcript

Hello, Brad Dixon with BigYield.us. I was going to talk to you a little bit about cover crops and the organics. A lot of organic farmers use cover crops, they’re an inexpensive way to up your organic matter and your CEC and keep your microbes lively and active. Guys will plant a mixture of cover crops between cash crops and then turn them under in the spring, and apply a sweetener with them that feeds your microbes and really makes them active and multiply, breaks down into the residue a lot quicker to turn that into organic matter for you. I think over time every year your organic matter will go up, so with your organic matter you have more drought resistance, you have better drain in soil, justa more palatable soil and your yield will definitely increase with organic matter. Usually it’s a mix of say turnips, radishes, rye grass, clover all different types because of all different root systems, some go deeper, some stay up to the top and when you turn them under you’re bringing some nutrients from deep back up, where they are a usable nutrient, all kinds of cover crops are used. That’s just a little information on cover crops, if you have any questions or would like to discuss it you can give us a call any time. Thank you.