[Podcast] Making Cover Crops Work in Semi-Arid Environments

[@hadnick1]

You, the man from Montana, and the guy in Australia basically have said what I’ve felt the last couple years, we’ve only gotten 3.94inches one year and 2.79 inches the next, this year we’ve gotten more and might end up with around 4inches, but the 30year average is 6.83inches, so at some point there will be an explosion. Just get as much land ready for a big rain as possible, then when it comes, you should get multiple years of benefits and a great jumping off point… Holistc Mamgement taught me to think of the soil more as a bank account that holds water and nutrients. If I can make my system work on two inches of rain, then six inches would give me multiple years of water, because even though there’s more plant growth, it’s not gonna use all six inches, so it will be left over for later in the year.

[@hadnick1]

Feeding the Biology of the soil is definitely THE MOST IMPORTANT part of a healthy soil creation system. If you feed the biology of the soil they will fix the water cycle for you which will increase your biomass to help cover the soil. I’m in a four inch(if we’re lucky) rainfall environment and I’ve been using cattle to repair my pastures for about three years using Holistic Livestock Management and the difference between now and three years ago is unbelievable. All the property around my land right now is dead and brown but on my land there’s a bunch of green grass already popping up(it’s mid February and in the teens and 20F at night) because the microbes keep the soil warmer. My next goal is to start incorporating cover crops to increase biomass and available nutrients…

[@sweetpeasandyarrowaranchdi8327]

The way this drought as been going for us, it's basically Winter is our growing season and Summer we need to feed hay. Almost of our cover burned up in the sun and wind last year.

[@Nightowl5454]

Guar is 1 of the BEST drought tolerant crops to have and the bonuses are it's salinity tolerate and a legume.😁😁😁

[@hadnick1]

The rainfall to $ per acre ratio isn’t gonna work with this inflation. Lol!