Cover Crops Rejuvenate Soil, Encourage Plant Growth
Cover Crops Rejuvenate Soil, Encourage Plant Growth
5/23/08
Contact: Natalie Ebig Scott
517-432-1555, ext. 157
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- “Cover crops will play a key role in the upper Midwest’s agricultural future,” said Dale Mutch, of the Midwest Cover Crops Council (MCCC).
Cover crops -- such as clover, oats, rye and less commonly used crops such as hairy vetch and turnips -- are planted to preserve and improve soil quality, which can decline under a repeated corn-soybean crop rotation.
“Our overall goal is to get more cover crops, annual and perennial, in the landscape,” said Mutch, a Michigan State University (MSU) Extension specialist and the MCCC project coordinator housed at the MSU W.K. Kellogg Biological Station in Hickory Corners. “Though they aren’t harvested as commodities, adding a cover crop system adds green plant material back into the soil, which can make the land more profitable.”
Funded by Project GREEEN, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the USDA Great Lakes Regional Water Program, the MCCC promotes research and education about the positive effects of planting cover crops.
Project GREEEN (Generating Research and Extension to meet Economic and Environmental Needs) is Michigan’s plant agriculture initiative housed at MSU.
Growing continuous corn-soybean rotations reduces soil quality and increases pest problems. Adding a third crop -- a cover crop -- can improve the soil’s use of nutrients, produce nitrogen (clover), and decrease soil and wind erosion while improving soil quality. The MCCC is working to increase cover crop systems throughout the Midwest by combining the resources of land-grant universities in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin as well as universities in Ontario, Canada.
As part of this regional approach, the MCCC has created several committees to address cover cropping issues. Mutch said the committees are working to create a cover crop matrix for the Upper Midwest, to develop research projects aimed at demonstrating how cover crops can improve water quality and to work with plant breeders to create new and improved cover crop seeds.
The MCCC is not composed entirely of researchers. Mutch believes that involving farmers and representatives from nongovernmental organizations, academia, agribusiness, and federal and state governments on the committees will enhance the adoption of practices that they uncover.
“We are attempting to gather research ongoing in the region and to use it for a model that farmers can use on their farms,” Mutch said.
The MCCC is also addressing the growing popularity of bioenergy; using crops as an energy source. Mutch said that removing all plant material for fuel production leaves very little plant material to put back into the soil. Ultimately, this will have a negative impact on the soil’s productivity.
“Planting cover crops between seasons is a way to effectively rejuvenate the soil,” he said. “The question is if we are going to go to bioenergy production, how are we going to maintain soil quality? I believe cover crops can be part of the answer.”
Mutch said interest in cover crops has spiked recently because of the high prices of fertilizer and fuel. Farmers are looking for ways to increase their profits. Planting cover crops helps replenish soils and is cost-effective.
One of the MCCC goals is to have 30 percent of croplands in the upper Midwest employ cover crops within the next 20 years.
Founded in 1997, Project GREEEN is a cooperative effort between plant-based commodities and businesses together with the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, MSU Extension and the Michigan Department of Agriculture to advance Michigan’s economy through its plant-based agriculture.
To learn more about Michigan’s plant agriculture initiative at MSU, visit www.greeen.msu.edu
#nes/lm#