In response to rising fertilizer costs and increasing grower interest in soil health practices, the N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services’ Agronomic Services Division has released a new step-by-step guide to help farmers measure the nutrient value of their cover crops and reduce fertilizer inputs.
The guide provides instructions on how to collect cover crop biomass samples, submit them for analysis, and calculate nutrient value on a per acre basis. The resource was created to give growers clear, practical steps they can apply immediately in the field. Prior to terminating their cover crops each spring, growers can follow the sampling guidelines to determine nutrient content and adjust fertilizer plans accordingly.
“There has been a growing interest in the nutrient value of cover crops in recent years,” said Dr. Kristin Hicks, lab director of the Plant/Waste/Solutions/Media Lab. “With recent spikes in fertilizer prices, we expect that interest to increase significantly. We created this quick guide with the goal of making it as easy as possible for growers to determine how much a cover crop could offset the need for fertilizer inputs.”
A key recommendation in the guide is for growers to submit samples through the Waste and Compost Analysis service instead of the Plant Tissue Analysis service — a directive that can be surprising to some.
“In the case of cover crops, you aren’t growing it for harvest but as a fertilizer for eventual land application or incorporation, similar to manure or compost,” Hicks said. “The Waste Analysis is designed to report nutrient concentrations on a per acre basis for this purpose.”
Source : ncagr.gov