Most legumes, alfalfa and clovers actually add more nitrogen (N) to the soil, especially when tilled in.
Well-established perennial legumes, including red and white clover, have been reported to provide 75 to 200 pounds fixed N per acre. This compares with alfalfa, which provides 150 to 200 pounds fixed N per acre.
I garden 2 big plots (100 by 30 feet) and alternate them with crimson clover each year. This means I have one plot in clover right now, just starting to flower, and the other I tilled in last Fall. Hopefully, my corn and vegies will grow like weeds.
If farmers would do this multiyear planting they’d get more yield per acre, even if it means a reduction in acreage overall.
I think cover crops need to be pushed like counter plowing was in the 1930s.
The farmer near me seems to rotate cotton, peanuts and corn. I was suprised this past year when he planted corn two consecutive years in the same field.
“I think cover crops need to be pushed like counter plowing was in the 1930s.”
Cover crops and no-till fields are going to be ‘all the rage’ these coming years, for sure. We rent out 112 acres to the dairy next door so he can grow foodstuffs and bedding for his dairy cows.
Since we live in the ‘driftless’ are of our state, that the glaciers never touched, we are so HILLY that erosion is the biggest concern for all. Fields are planted in varying rows of crops called ‘contour striping’ which helps a lot. Not sure what our guy is going to do this season - he needs both soy and corn for his ‘girls’ and to fight the erosion.
We’re on some ‘program’ with the state for erosion and natural soil fertility; not sure of all the details, but it’s like MANDATORY to plant the fields that way around here.