5-10 percent corn yield jump using erosion-slowing cover crops shown in ISU study

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2012/feb/MooreIII

[font face=Times,Times New Roman,Serif]Contacts:
Ken Moore, Agronomy, 515-294-5482, [e-mail]
Dan Kuester, News Service, 515-294-0704, [e-mail]
[font size=5]5-10 percent corn yield jump using erosion-slowing cover crops shown in ISU study[/font]

[font size=3]AMES, Iowa - The most recent annual results from a four-year Iowa State University study on using cover crops between rows of corn reveals that higher yields - by as much as 10 percent - are possible using the soil-saving approach to farming.

The results are the best yet in the ongoing research, according to Ken Moore, Distinguished Professor of agronomy and primary investigator on the project, who plans to carry on the trials for at least one more growing season.

Planting living mulch - or ground cover - between rows of corn is intended to perform several functions - maintain soil moisture, slow soil erosion, and sequester carbon.

…

"This is really promising," said Moore of the results. "Last summer was hot, and the cover crop systems performed better because living mulch held the water in the soil better. It was the first year those ground covers went completely dormant. They weren't transpiring any water at all and they were serving as a barrier to moisture moving out of the soil, and that's good."

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[enough]

1. What a wierd idea, using living plants to benefit each other, instead of killing off everything

and growing your crop in a toxic environment. Maybe someday we'll get back to understanding how plants and soil are all interdependent. Thanks for posting this. Promising is right.

[NWmomma]

2. good

but here's to hoping they aren't using a gmo cover crop along with their gmo corn...

[kestrel91316]

3. No shit, Sherlock.

[kestrel91316]

4. Oh, but we cannot permit this. Intercropping is explicitly forbidden in the bible.