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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] A long love affair with cover crops
  • Date: Mon, 08 Sep 2003 14:48:22 -0600


A long love affair with cover crops
http://www.newfarm.org/columns/jeff_moyer/0903.shtml
By Jeff Moyer, Rodale Institute Farm Manager

In the midst of the current season’s tribulations, planting cover crops lets
you think about and prepare for a whole new growing season, with all its
unspoiled promise.

Jeff Moyer is the farm manager at the 333-acre Rodale Institute research
farm, and has been here for over 26 years, refining the farm's cover cropping
and crop rotation systems. The farm has over 1,000 organic apple trees, a
3-acre CSA, 270 acres in a rotation of corn, small grains, hay, and edible
soy beans for a Japanese market, and 25 acres of experimental research plots
that have been used to test and compare the yield, soil health and
environmental impact of organic and conventional systems for the last 22
years.

"It's been extremely rewarding to work at The Rodale Institute," says Jeff.
"Working on projects and with people who are having a positive impact on
family farm practices, economics, and environmental stewardship is very
fulfilling. The positive changes I've seen on our own farm over the years—and
farms around the world— convinces me that we're on the right road."


Posted September 5, 2003: I can’t believe its September already. With summer
weather coming late to Pennsylvania, and the usual work load it brings, the
weeks flew by. If you read my last article you already know it wasn’t a
stellar year for field crops here at the Institute’s research farm. But the
corn is starting to show the promise of good yields, the apples should come
through well (barring any catastrophes), and the air is beginning to cool off.

More importantly, it’s time to plant cover crops. I love planting cover crops
because it encourages me to look forward to another year -- pushing any
problems of this growing season to the back of my thoughts. You can’t plan
for next year without feeling a twinge of excitement and the promise that a
fresh growing season brings. And to get that feeling this early is great.

The primary function of cover crops on this farm is to grow -- or rather fix
-- nitrogen. For that reason, all my early covers contain legumes. Most of
the ground going into legumes was wheat ground that was just harvested and
ground that isn’t slated for hay. For the most part I plant hairy vetch or
mixes that contain hairy vetch. This year I’m planting some fields to
straight vetch at approximately 28 pounds of seed per acre. I’m also planting
a number of fields to a mixture of hairy vetch at 20 pounds of seed per acre
coupled with oats planted at about 1.5 to 2 bushels per acre. The oats will
winter kill and give protection to the vetch over the winter.

You may recall I mentioned last spring that most of my vetch failed to over
winter – a blunder I hope not to repeat. I’m also planting one field with
vetch and rye and one field with vetch and wheat. Even though I swear every
year I won’t plant rye with vetch I do a little any way. It really produces
biomass, but the rye can be a bugger to handle in the spring. As far as grass
covers go, I’ll be planting those after the corn and soybeans are harvested.

I’ve been working for years on organic no-till systems. Last year I was able
to no-till the vetch since the wheat crop that came before was so clean. This
year was just the opposite. The rain we had thru July and into early August
left the fields far to weedy to give the cover crops a chance. I had to plow
all the wheat stubble in order to establish my cover crops. I’m hoping that
by plowing and prepping the fields we’ll get good stands.

Update on the waste water project

I spoke before about our new project for managing the water coming from the
restrooms of our visitor center. Several of you wrote to me asking for
updates as the project unfolds so I thought I’d briefly mention how the
project is going. We have our design team in place made up of folks from
in-house, universities, private companies, and other non-profits. I’m excited
about the future impact this project will have on how we manage this resource
on the rural landscape, where decentralized sewage systems make the most
sense.

The design team will be meeting early this month to finalize our plans and
solidify our funding. The core of this system will be a multi-celled
constructed wetlands to clean up the water leaving the restroom. While we’ll
be working on research tasks that support and prove the value of the system,
a great deal of our energy will be spent working on educational components
designed to reach two major audiences.

On one hand we’ll be working with home owners and those looking at new
construction to give them the information necessary to make informed purchase
requests. Our second audience will be those technical people and regulators
who will be able to endorse and supply the systems the public wants. Our
time-line is to begin construction early in 2004. I’m really excited about
the long term ramifications of moving these types of systems into the
forefront for rural planners. I’ll be giving you many more details and some
photos as the project progresses.

This summer we built a walking trail around the perimeter of our research
farm. This trail was originally designed to give our staff a quiet place to
walk. But we have decided to open it up to the public so everyone can gain
access to and enjoy the farm. It runs about three miles in length. If you
plan on stopping buy to visit with us I hope you’ll take the time to walk the
trail and really see the farm.

This summer was also a time to fix up one of the older buildings on the farm.
We have a large “Pennsylvania Dutch” bank barn in the center of our farm
complex. The date stone says it was built in 1819. In fact the staff of The
New Farm is housed in this barn. Well, it was time for a new roof and a fresh
coat of paint. This barn really is the focal point of the farm buildings and
brightening up the exterior has really made the entire farm look great.

September is the month we begin harvesting pumpkins. This year’s crop may be
a little light in tonnage, and I only planted 2.5 acres of them. But the
quality looks good, and I’m sure there will be more than enough to get us all
tired of picking them, loading them, and shipping them.

As fall slowly creeps our way, I wish for all of you a safe and successful
harvest. Take a moment, jot me an email, and let me know what’s happening on
your farm this harvest season.

>From One Farm To Another . . .




  • [Livingontheland] A long love affair with cover crops, Tradingpost, 09/08/2003

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