The Next Step: Adding Cover Crop To A No-Till System

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For more Stories, Food News, and Cooking Fresh videos, please visit cookingupastory.com Dan Forgey, farm manager at Cronin Farms in South Dakota, has been using no-till management for more than 17 years. Over that time, Forgey has developed a keen understanding of how his farming system works and where new challenges and opportunities exist.
For a PDF download of Forgey's 4-year crop rotation, click here:
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[@ARPorganics]

First time I heard about organic growing was in 2000. My first time I heard about no till was in 2017. In 2018 I started a no till 100% organic garden in my backyard. It's now 2022 and my soil is soft with a healthy beautiful black color. I call it my super soil. It keeps getting better each year.

[@HomeGrownVeg]

For my 3 raised beds, I think I will take your no-till / no-dig advise. I will give the cover crop idea a miss but cover the beds with some organic stuff, grass, leaves, seaweed etc and just let it sit over winter. That should give the worms and other assorted soil inhabitants something to eat until I plant the beds again.

[@palui]

This is a must for all large farms. Even if they're not organic, maintaining soil structure is vital to the future of farming. My opinion is that the structure of the soil, including the microbial activity, is more important than the chemicals in it.

[@JohnDoe-jq5wy]

When a "drought cycle" pulls up to your operation, you won't even know it. Polly culture blends will provide the balance (microbes, benifical insects and organisms), "ROOT STABILITY" of the profile and nutrients/water battery that will even out the moisture difficent weather cycles. You have provided one of the "top tier" presentations on this valuable subject. This is the foundation to propel agriculture into the next dynamic. Thank you!!

[@celainea]

Natives always planted corn with squash & lima beans. They alternated areas with these crops, followed by land with grasses: peanuts, ryes & wheat to attract horses and buffalo who left their fertilizers. Fish cleanings & crushed bones were also thrown on top. The land stayed fertile for centuries.

[@mastermorris6606]

I am so happy for the no till and sustainable people. This info has been "out there for decades. so happy they are finally using it commercially. five years from now food will get its taste back.

[@BP-qx7ux]

Yes! Hats off to no till big commercial farmers.

[@soilguy100]

Dan's right, CCs also use moisture, but they also improve water infiltration and retention. We've started some research here (deep south Texas) to determine the pay-back for irrigating CCs to put the economics to the test. Improvements to soil fertility, weed control, organic matter, etc. are a part of the whole pay-back issue, and they will be included in the analysis as well. Great video!

[@cookingupastory]

@BackOnElectone No-till helped build Forgey's soil health and made a rich aggregate. What increased it even more (and faster) was adding a cover crop into his rotation. From what I could see, his soil was very welcoming to crops wanting to spread their roots. As for how a home grower might apply it - you might want to check out the free pdf from SARE. The URL address can be found at 13:07 (in video). Forgey highly recommends it and refers to it regularly himself. Hope this helps.

[@WhiteTiger333]

Outstanding! And what beautiful soil! I didn't know anyone was doing cover crops on that much land. Yes, we badly need to restore the tall and short grass prairie soil as much as possible to their former richness. Hmmmm...yes, in a drought year, cover crops would use water, but wouldn't they also hold water and soil integrity much better than stripped land? I don't see that as a disadvantage, but I'm quite sure Dan knows much better than I do.

[@crpth1]

The "hold water" premise is missing in many "old farmers" opinions regarding cover crops! In a drought year water will be missing anyway. My point being when it will be missing the most? The answer I saw on my soil, is that during the dry months, that extra buffer does help a lot. ;-)

[@gruntlesnoot]

Great Video ! How many people have the patience to persist for years to see the benefits...? But these are the kind of things we have to do if we still want to have food in the future.

[@crossslotdave]

this is great, should be essential viewing for all farmers.

[@cookingupastory]

so did I, @Socksee ! I loved learning the way Forgey is building organic matter and what soil armor is. His soil was beautiful!

[@tnoel374]

Thank you for this important information. I just bought a 4 acre farm that 2.5 of the acres, haven't been turned for 15 years. There is so much natural growth now. I first thought to plow it all under, or cut it out. But now that I have seen this video, and understand the importance of ground cover providing the necessary nitrates, PH, and other vital nutrients needed. To grow a heather dense growth crop. thank you.

[@GREENPOWERSCIENCE]

EXCELLENT WORK!

[@1voluntaryist]

That potential problem of less rain will not be a problem. Healthier soil retains more moisture than soil that has been mined of its fertility. There is no downside to "no-till" if done consciously. As anything, it can be screwed up by thoughtless half measures and getting advice from those who profit from selling chemicals, not to mention academics who repeat myths perpetrated by shills for the chemical companies.

[@ZolaTaTa]

Thank you. Love it.

[@kukana228]

Awesome video. Thank you. This has made me so happy.

[@Socksee]

Thanks so much for this fantastic video. I learned so much!

[@bmarsh011]

Great info, will adapt this for our backyard gardening!

[@jetle25]

@BackOnElectone Tilling does aerate and adds oxygen. But it's a big disturbance and it basically is a huge flush of nutrients for the microorganisms. You end up with weed seeds germinating and lots of carbon is used up because of the flush of bacteria growth. To prevent compaction you plant many types of cover crop to aid in soil health. Like what he said radish or turnips to aerate the soil, legumes to add nitrogen, and then you get free residue for organic matter. It's win win

[@halfblackmaniac]

dope.......thank you for sharing. end of line.

[@WellnessMafia]

Thanks for this friend :)

[@MRSketch09]

Pretty interesting stuff.

[@JamesAllenMinistries]

Very helpful!

[@KayakFisher01]

It would be nice if you could include the SARE pdf link in the video discription.

[@Azam_Pakistan]

Great job. Could you please educate on how could no till work when we grow vegetables (on ridges) on lands where maize or sunflower grew before. Also the ridges need to be remade every year as harvesting destroy these. Second we grow rice which includes encouraging a hard pan of soil beneath the surface and needs to be broken for the following wheat. How should we follow No Till under that situation?

[@cookingupastory]

@WhiteTiger333 I think he speaks primarily from the area he farms in (central South Dakota), which receives, on average, around 18" of rain a year. That's not a lot, so every inch for cash crops is important - but so is building the soil's health, as he points out. And, yes, the cover crops do hold some of the moisture - but also use some of it, too!

[@leelindsay5618]

I think he should also check water infiltration between his land and one of his immediate neighbor. I'm sure if he understood the effective rainfall vs actual rainfall, he wouldn't see any issue with cover crops "using" water.

[@ServantDujmovJr]

Cooking Up a Story Are any chemicals used to kill the cover crop before the cash crop is planted?

[@JohnDoe-jq5wy]

Mother earth is always using it's resources to protect the soil and create a Polly culture environment....select and area untouched by man for 5 years and see the variety and numbers of species.....the earth is our teacher.

[@WvhKerkhof]

And for more profit we always plant in the middle a few acres weedgrass.

[@markroeder2491]

Would it work to "chop and drop" the cover crop rather than use Roundup? I'd like to decrease the inputs and chemicals and still be able to plant. I live in a semi arid place (12-14 ") and I worry that the cover crop will use up that moisture. My growing seasons are also short with most of my moisture coming in spring. Do I have to leave my cover crop all year or alternate every other year from cover crop to cash crop?

[@omidpirhadi2820]

+Mars Rover where are you from ?

[@markroeder2491]

Western central Montana.

[@omidpirhadi2820]

would you plz tell me more about its agriculture in semi arid climate, i live in iran and it will be helpful for me ...

[@BackyardPhenomena]

With a cover crop like buckwheat, does one let in run through seed or is a chop and drop before seed heads are formed?

[@JBSCanada]

You chop at maximum nutrient value, so a week before seed heads form.

[@crpth1]

@@JBSCanada Well said, an important detail most forget. ;-)

[@cihanmirza9113]

We only harvest one yield ( barley) every 2 years because it doesn't rain enough. We leave the field for a rest for a year! Would cover crop ( during the resting year ) improve yield or take the much valued water away. Thank you for your replies!

[@mrwhythebly]

I know this post is old, but let us know how it worked for you if you have tried it and what your conditions are like. On average, we farm with about 5-10" of moisture per year total (rain & snow and pretty excited if we get near the higher end of that). We get pretty hot in the summer (over 100F). Over the years we have had much better luck with no-till getting our crops out of the ground. If you are like us, I'd expect you would be just fine including a cover crop as long as you catch a little-off season moisture between termination of your cover crop and planting of barley. Fallow only seems to save around 20% of the total moisture you get, and keeping soil "alive", at least for us, generally seems to offset this - but only when a little off-season moisture shows up. If not, that extra inch or two generally is the difference in a crop depending on the field layout. (i.e. Corn, at 100% utilization, takes approximately 1" of water for every 11BU produced. If it only gets 5" of usable moisture during a season, I might be lucky to get 55 BU ... but if I have the extra 2" stored, that could get me over 75BU) The key word is usable, how much moisture your soil can take in, and hold, when the crop needs it. In addition, we also have to factor economics including fertilizer needs, soil type, pH, exchange capacity, land layout ...just to name a few. Some fields it works, some not so much. Good luck. Our major challenge is same-year cover crops. Say we grow a cover crop in the summer (i.e. peas) and then hope for a fall-planted winter wheat crop to germinate and be stable enough to survive the winter. This can cost us our most drought-tolerant, marketable crop for our region. It's even less likely to work following wheat for us. Typically, we might see one year out of 5 (at best) that we will get enough rain after a wheat harvest that would allow us to plant a surviving cover crop until winterkill. (I know a lot of people that tried this year, including us, with nothing but a dead field to show for it).

[@cihanmirza9113]

@@mrwhythebly thank you so much for your detailed answer sir.

[@farmerallis]

Round Up is a systemic, contact herbicide. It works by contacting the leaf surface, and is absorbed through the leaf surface. Once inside the plant, it is translocated (the systemic part) to the plant's roots, where it blocks a vital plant metabolic process and kills the plant's roots. So you can technically plant immediately after you spray round up, but, it is best to wait 3-5 days just to be sure your application was successful at killing the cover crop.

[@doncook3584]

All of Agriculture will eventually see the results no till and covers produce and the land animals food waters and climate will get back on track.

[@ignasanchezl]

To cut off chemical usage I would still use shallow stale seedbeds plus goosefoot cultivators for volunteers and weed control. No till has benefits, but most of the benefits come from using cover crops and reducing deep soil inverting cultivation. Plus in the USA and other regions most old and some new cultivators, chisels and disc harrows don't have a roller, this is a problem cause they leave the soil open to erosion and let a higher level of carbon and nitrogen out of the soil.

[@cookingupastory]

@KayakFisher01 Good idea -> done! =)

[@Mozafamily]

Is there a way to know whether the food I buy is from farmers who are using no till? This really seems like a good idea and I would like to support it.

[@russkes9745]

So my organic matter is anywhere from 7 to 30 percent full millboard plow. Are we some insane farm?

[@cihanmirza9113]

Can someone please explain how it works over a calender year? When the cover crop and the cash crop is seeded/harvested? I would much appreciate any input.

[@cihanmirza9113]

thank you!

[@BackOnElectone]

Very interesting, I thought tilling the soil is to help add oxygen and loosen the soil since compact soil is hard for root to penetrate. How would home grower apply this knowledge? When weed is competing with cover crop, what do you do?

[@JBSCanada]

Mow or Roll your cover crop before it sets to seed (for sure!) and make sure you plant your seeds right after you mow or roll your cover crop. If you mow (and leave the cuttings right where they fall) or roll your field just before seeding, you'll be helping to keep weed growth down. This will help your chosen plants get a headstart on the weeds. a) Mowing just before planting gets more nutrients into the soil, faster, for a quickstart organic fertilizer to help your plants jump out of the ground. b) Rolling your cover crop does even more to keep weeds down, but the nutrients from the by-then decaying rolled cover crop might take a year or two to fully release their full nutrient load. (Depends how many earthworms per acre you have, how much rain you get, and whether you aerate the soil) Aerating the soil is a great idea between sowings, BTW.

[@nardeepsinghmangatnardeeps8102]

Wolds best technology

[@jbbasralian]

Is he using pesticides and herbicides, and how much relative to using a more conventional system in say the '90s?

[@WoodstockTBL]

Question: the legumes and the radishes are grown to maturity?

[@JBSCanada]

Only if you're grazing your livestock on the fields overwinter. They love that stuff, will even work for it under a crust of snow. If the cattle get enough time out there, not even one radish or legume plant will be left by spring.

[@massimopecile9666]

But one thing, micro organism dont buil up organic matter but the fungus are, micro buil hidrogen for soil (called mineralization)

[@rockgeluk9746]

Yield up by 20 bu but revenue up by only $14. At $3.00 per bu revenue should be up by $ 60

[@danielbtwd]

I sometimes think that if the average man in the street started to behave like Monsanto they would be incarcerated.

[@cinilaknedalm]

This is just fantastic. I would increase the part with the animals and add human waste

[@MrCodythegreat]

if you never turn your soil how do you incorporate the organic matter into the soil where it needs to be

[@infidelforlife186]

noob...lol

[@ddhughes13]

Cattle and other livestock incorporate the organic matter into the soil with their hooves. Then the rain does the rest of the work.

[@redddbaron]

The roots are already in the soil. Next comes the worms, small arthropods and burrowing insects. So it's the soil biology that replaces the plow. Cattle do help speed the process, worms and dung beetles feeding on cattle manure particularly, but even without cattle in the rotation, the biology in the soil still incorporates it.

[@zapthycat]

I get the benefits of using cover crops, but I still don't see the benefits of no-till. What is the purpose of not plowing the old organic matter under the soil so that it benefits ALL the topsoil, not just blow away to fertilize someone elses soil?

[@ShermanT.Potter]

Plowing/tillage hastens the decomposition process and eventually you "burn up" your organic matter. I farmed organically for a few years and tilled many times per year for weed control. That farm was farmed organically by people before me as well for 22 years organic in total, and it was probably conventionally tilled before that. My organic matter was shot in certain areas. Most tillage essentially rapes the soil. It can help in the short term, sometimes it's necessary (disking in manure to incorporate it, or when you're organic a moldboard plow can do wonders for weed supression by burying the weed seeds so deep they can't sprout), but it hurts in the long term. We were installing drainage tile in a field, and where we trenched on the field border that was full of undisturbed grass, that soil was nice and black. The field was fairly sandy. Alot of the topsoil is gone due to tillage. If you want a desert, till a piece of ground continuously, see what happens.

[@MsTokies]

root cause. fix your farming methods. ur daddy great great didnt use roundup he used hard work. there are better ways to do it. you choose to use roundup and cut corners. people are working on ways to make farming effective and not destructive. stop shifting blame and making excuses. ive only planted corn for corn sake . not for commodity corn or commodity soy. commodity soy and corn isnt food. it's subsidies crap. the guy up there. the guy working for it. that's a farmer.

[@erichufnagel3474]

Interesting, with everything happening with regenerative agriculture 12 years later I wonder if he still believes you can't overuse phosphorus and nitrogen

[@shadycreekfarms9485]

if what you want is dirty 30s #2 we can arange that for you @Riley Chew

[@hoosierfarmer3484]

No till farming yields less in clay soils. Water infiltration is also an issue. If he cares so much about soil health why does he apply anhydrous ammonia?

[@lechandler4041]

Something in this video smells. An increase of 18 to 20 bushels an acre, and a gain of $14? What?

[@jghnky]

It costs money to buy cover crop seed, as well as seed the cover crop, then destroy the cover crop. Nothing is free!

[@GimmeADream]

Where are the worms in the soil? It is what isn't into the soil after a couple years that speaks volumes.

[@cookingupastory]

they were there, I saw them! when he was pulling up shovel-fulls of soil, they were wriggling around in many of the clumps.

[@AnnabelleC0306]

I saw them as well..

[@rexsmith7264]

+Annabelle C.C. and I also :)

[@MsTokies]

anyone who works hard has failures. lol failures are how real work is done. there is no snake oil that makes it easier. failure can tell you almost as much if not more so than success. when you have easy success without understanding the system it doesnt always help in replication

[@JBSCanada]

"Strength, mastery, yes. But weakness, folly, failure... yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is.” -- Yoda

[@MsTokies]

some of the early no-till 60s guys were in your state man. the reason why your not draining well. let the freakin corn dude. there is more to a farm than corn it's a system. complex not just corn and soy and whatever. ive seen people no till on bedrock dude.

[@WoodstockTBL]

Roundup is garbage, don't use Roundup.

[@MsTokies]

folks who use roundup aren't real farmers .. just some dudes using short cuts in farming instead of figuring out root causes and fixing them