Dairy farmer Derek Van De Hey, De Pere, WI, discusses how he implements cover crops and no-till on their 2,500 acres. Van De Hey shares how these practices have helped improve soil health and reduce input costs.

Farmers who make soil health a priority are more likely to rotate three or more crops and to graze livestock on cropland, according to a survey of producers in South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska. The survey examined why some agricultural producers prioritize soil health and how to encourage more producers to adopt these conservation practices, according to assistant professor Tong Wang of South Dakota State University’s Ness School of Management and Economics. Read more in this article from Newswise.

This podcast, sponsored by Yetter Equipment, features an interview with Jeff Vetsch, a researcher at the University of Minnesota Southern Research & Outreach Center in Waseca, Minn., and Anna Cates, Minnesota State Soil Health Specialist.

Indiana growers have shown increased interest in utilizing cover crops in our corn and soybean production systems over the last decade. Marcelo Zimmer and Bill Johnson, Purdue weed specialists, have also noted there has been increased use of soil residual herbicides to help manage herbicide-resistant weeds such as marestail (horseweed), waterhemp, and giant ragweed. Read more in this article from KPC News.

With growing interest in cover crops, it is important to understand how cover crops might impact soil fertility for the following cash crop. Nitrogen (N) provided by cover crop biomass may be used in the short-term by the following crop, and in the long-term through improving soil N content and reducing fertilizer input costs. Read more in this article from University of Nebraska Extension.

What would producers gain by visually examining the living soil that lies underneath their crops and grasslands? There could be problems with soil structure like erosion or root structures that grow horizontally rather than vertically due to compaction. Read more in this article from the Lincoln Journal Star.

Known for their ability to produce nitrogen, legumes actually partner with rhizobium bacteria to create or fix nitrogen through specialized organs in their roots called nodules. This unique relationship adds nitrogen back to the soil so it can be used as fertilizer by future crops. Read more in this article from the Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) program.

Some cover crops, coupled with soil solarization, can control soil-borne diseases in nursery field production of woody ornamentals, according to the results of a Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SSARE)-funded Tennessee State University study. Through a $15,000 SSARE On-Farm Research Grant, Fulya Baysal-Gurel of TSU’s Otis L. Floyd Nursery Research Center, and her colleagues assessed the effects of certain cover crops that belonged to the Brassicaceae family on soil-borne pathogen Phytophthora nicotianae in boxwoods. Read more in this article from SARE.

Soil organic matter (SOM) is an indicator of how healthy and productive a soil is and serves many important functions. The higher the SOM the better the soil is. Read more in this article from the Leavenworth Times (Leavenworth, KS).

A carefully crafted cover crop composition, manure management, precision agriculture and the right mix of soil additives can be a recipe for improved soil health. Cover crops require a thoughtful approach. Read more in this article from Lancaster Farming.