10 Ways Cover Crops Enhance Soil Health
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has identified four basic principles or approaches for maintaining and improving soil health:
- Keep the soil covered as much as possible
- Disturb the soil as little as possible
- Keep plants growing throughout the year to feed the soil
- Diversify crop rotations as much as possible, including cover crops.
Farmers can support these principles by using cover crops, which are conservation plantings of fast-growing annuals such as rye, clovers, vetches and radishes. Cover crops protect and improve the soil when a cash crop is not growing. In the case of summer commodity crops like corn/maize and soybeans, cover crops can keep the soil covered in fall, winter and early spring. They make it easier to use no-till or other conservation tillage approaches that disturb the soil less, and they help with weed control. Plant diversity is helpful for soil organisms because it gives them a greater variety of food sources, and cover crops are an easy way to diversify a crop rotation that may otherwise see only one or two crops grown in a field. Adding cover crops to a rotation can greatly increase the portion of the year when living roots are present for soil organisms to feed on.
SARE (Sustainable Agricultue Research & Education) has produced free, downloadable fact sheets for educators, extension service providers and farmers hosting field days.
Along with cutting costs and increasing crop productivity, cover crops provide various ecosystem services that benefit the environment both on and off the farm. For instance, adding cover crops to a rotation can significantly increase the portion of the year when living roots are present for soil organisms to feed on, which can have a significant impact on carbon sequestration. They also support wildlife and beneficial insects, and protect water quality by playing an important role in nutrient management.
SARE’s Ecosystem Services from Cover Crops fact sheets explore the many ways cover crops can maintain soil and benefit the farm ecosystem, including:
