By Mick Kulikowski
Researchers have developed a new model that can suggest the optimal conditions for farmers to plant cover crops, or crops grown in between cash-crop seasons, to help ensure long-term cash-crop success. The findings, which appear in the European Review of Agricultural Economics, could help improve farm budgets and serve as aids to farmers making decisions about their land.
The model, based on an examination of 35 years of available data on an experimental cotton farm in west Tennessee, accounts for local conditions including current prices of cash crops and fertilizer as well as the health and fertility of the soil and then suggests whether an investment in cover crops would be economically beneficial for farmers.
North Carolina State University researchers involved in the study say the model generally favors planting cover crops on fields with relatively healthy soil and on land that has not been tilled. The cost of planting and maintaining cover crops appears to reduce the need for fertilizer treatments, so high fertilizer costs would be one key factor in favor of planting cover crops, the researchers add.
Cover crops have been shown in the academic literature to improve soil conditions by controlling excess water and fixing nitrogen, among other benefits. But only a small percentage of farmers about 4% nationally utilize cover crops. Many farmers looking for short-term benefits may consider the costs of planting cover crops overly excessive.
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