Have you ever participated in No Shave November? Maybe you have, unintentionally, or by choice. Now, there’s a new reason to “keep the stubble” during the month of November.
The NRCS recently launched the “No-Till November” campaign to keep crop stubble on their fields to improve soil health.
The benefits of no-till are well known, including improving water quality, saving farmers valuable time and money, increasing soil biological activity, providing erosion control and nutrient benefits, among others.
Cover crops can serve as a major jump-start for no-till systems, and using the two practices together can produce higher yields than with conventional tillage, says information from Ohio State University Extension. Those improved yields are thanks to restored microbial levels in the soil and nutrient levels in the soil being brought back to where they were before tillage.
Here’s hoping to see many fields that have “kept the stubble” this November, but with cover crops as an added option to build more dynamic no-till systems.
