Soil microbes are living, working barometers of soil health. They are responsible for turning atmospheric nitrogen into forms plants can use, and for releasing nitrogen back into the air. Read more in this article from the Wisconsin State Farmer.

After harvest in the fall, farmers take the harvested crops to market or store them on their farm. They don't take the whole plant from the field, though. The leftover parts of the plant, like the stalk and leaves from corn, remain in the field. This debris is called crop residue. Read more in this article from Phys.org and the American Society of Agronomy.

There is a lot of interest in haying or grazing a cover crop planted on prevented planting acres. This is mostly the result of projected lower yielding 2020 hay production due to a late freeze and current dry conditions. Read more in this article from AgWeek.

In the midst of a renaissance in soil health, researchers, agronomists and extension personnel have been pushing the message that everything a grower does in a field is connected to everything else. Fertility is linked to planting depth, just as mycorrhizal fungi are connected to weed management. Read more in this article from Country Guide.

For the first time ever, the Ed and Andrew Askegaard families are using their prevented-planting insurance. “Here we are,” Ed said, “after Memorial Day, harvesting our COVID-19 corn." Read more in this article from the Capital Journal (Pierre, SD).

Producers are beginning to harvest small grains; these crops provide an excellent window for adding a cover crop into your rotation. Whether you grow a small grain or would like to fit a cover crop into your row crop rotation, there are many considerations to make. Read more in this article from the Aberdeen News (Aberdeen, SD).

Lessons learned from field scale cover crop trials have transitioned to a watershed scale and continue to show the system’s benefits in controlling nitrogen loss. Shalamar Armstrong, Purdue University assistant professor of soil conservation and management in the Department of Agronomy, is a co-investigator with Illinois State University faculty in the Lake Bloomington watershed trials. Read more in this article from AgriNews.

The growth in cover cropping may soon hit a ceiling: planting millions of acres of cover crops will require huge extensions of land to produce cover crop seed. Between 3 and 6% of the 92 million acres of cropping land currently used for corn in the U.S. may be required to produce cover crop seed for that land area. Read more in this article from Seed World.

A research team including current and former ecologists from Colorado State University said soil biodiversity should be incorporated into the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which include zero hunger, sustainable cities and communities, and protection of terrestrial ecosystems. The researchers also argue that soil biodiversity should also be incorporated into the next generation of Aichi Biodiversity Targets, a set of 20 conservation goals established in 2010 being revamped this year.

One important benefit of cover crops to our production system is providing an alternative selection pressure on weed populations. Cereal rye has the best potential to suppress weeds because it accumulates more biomass than other cover crop species. Read more in this article from Iowa State University Extension.