What is a Successful Cover Crop?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That’s how Zeb Winslow defines a successful cover crop. Zeb actually uses a more detailed definition to describe the keys to a successful cover crop, but over time, Zeb has learned to fine tune his cover cropping system to work for his farm even if it appears different than another farm’s approach.
During our April Soil Health Hour, the NC Soil Health Coalition was joined by Emily Ball, a Soil Health Educator for Soil Health Institute, and Zeb Winslow, a 5th generation farmer from Scotland Neck, NC.
Zeb defines a successful cover crop as any living root that would otherwise not be present in your field that fulfills one or more of the following:
Improves the soil in any way, shape, or form and doesn’t harm profitability.
Teaches you something or causes changes to better your management.
Causes you to question your current thought process.
Zeb has used these principles for over a decade to improve the cover cropping system on his farm. He has been able to reduce input costs to improve profitability and has seen more consistent and better yields. At first, Zeb’s goal was to plant into heavy residue by producing as much biomass as possible prior to planting. Now, Zeb uses a more targeted approach and uses a row planter for accurate spacing and has reduced his cover crop seeding rate to 27 lbs/acre.
Zeb and his family planted their first multi-species cover crop in 2014 on less than 10% of their total acreage after using single-species cover crops and strip tillage since the late 90s. Zeb recommends starting small when working with multi-species cover crops for the first time. One of his most important pieces of advice is that you need to know what you want from your cover crop before planting it. You need to determine its purpose.
Zeb is one of Soil Health Institute’s farmer mentors and has worked with Soil Health Institute on numerous projects through the years. Emily Ball shared the purpose and outcomes from some of those projects during the April Soil Health Hour. Soil Health Institute works with farmer mentors and technical specialists across the U.S. to provide farmers with feedback and first-hand knowledge to make informed soil health management system decisions. They have also published studies looking at the economics of soil health and have found that improved net farm income is normally attributed to reduced input costs, which result from improved soil health.
Soil Health Institute developed soil health benchmarks to help everyone speak the same language around monitoring soil health. Through their research, they have found that three metrics are most useful for assessing and tracking soil health: soil organic carbon, carbon mineralization potential, and aggregate stability. The first two must be determined through laboratory testing, whereas aggregate stability can be determined using their SLAKES app, which can be downloaded for free. These three metrics can be used to determine how well the soil is functioning, including its ability to infiltrate and store water, its capacity to cycle nutrients, its microbial diversity and activity, and its ability to support overall plant health.
At this time, Soil Health Institute is still offering free soil health tests and reports for farms across the Carolina Coastal Plain. You can contact Maneisha Lewis to learn more about the program. They will use the results to benchmark soil health across the Coastal Plain and provide context to farmers that want to understand their soil health metrics and realistic goals for improvement.
You can learn more about Soil Health Institute, their research, and how your farm can become involved with their work at their website. Thank you to Emily Ball and Zeb Winslow for joining us!
