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The No-Till Permanent Cover Crop System As Practiced By Steve Groff

The No-Till Permanent Cover Crop System As Practiced By Steve Groff. By llan Brandvain For the Penn State Agroecology On-Farm Internship Program Summer 2005. Steve Groff & Cedar Meadow Farm. Steve is a 3 rd generation farmer Farms 200 acres in southern Pennsylvania

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The No-Till Permanent Cover Crop System As Practiced By Steve Groff

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  1. The No-Till Permanent Cover Crop SystemAs Practiced By Steve Groff By llan Brandvain For the Penn State Agroecology On-Farm Internship Program Summer 2005

  2. Steve Groff & Cedar Meadow Farm • Steve is a 3rd generation farmer • Farms 200 acres in southern Pennsylvania • Farms mostly tomatoes, sweet corn, pumpkins, squash, fields corn, soy beans, and hay. • Does it all 100% NO TILL

  3. The No-Till Permanent Cover Crop System • Steve began no-tilling in the mid 1980’s because he wanted to reduce erosion. • Soon learned about the benefits of cover cropping. • Developed his own permanent cover crop system through years of seeing what works best. • The conversion to 100% no till was about a decade long process Plant Cover Kill Cover Soil is Always Covered Soil is Never Disturbed Harvest Plant Crop

  4. Cover Cropping Steve uses many different cover crops and often mixes two or more in the same field. Some covers used on Cedar Meadow Farm are: Oat, crimson clover, rye, hairy vetch, andwheat • Some Benefits: • Hold soil in place • Fix and sequester nutrients • Add organic matter to the soil • Arthropod habitat • Weed control • Conserve soil moisture Photo Courtesy Steve Groff

  5. Cover Cropping • Things to consider when planting a cover crop: • Nitrogen fixing • Biomass Production • Decomposition Rate • Root Depth • Planting Time • Over-wintering ability • Cost • Next Years Crop Requirements Covers used at Cedar Meadow and some of their characteristics

  6. Killing the Cover In the spring, before the cash crop is planted, the cover must be killed. This is generally done with a Roller. If the cover has not yet gone to flower, some herbicide is needed to aid in the kill. The killed cover is left on the soil surface to decompose and act as a mulch for the rest of the season. It adds nutrients and organic matter to the soil, and suppresses weeds throughout the season.

  7. Planting the Cash Crop • Planted directly into the cover residue • Corn, Squash, and pumpkins are planted from seed using a no-till planter (A). • 4 rows at a time • Fertilized during planting • Tomatoes are planted with a modified carousel transplanter (B). • 2 rows planted at a time • Requires 2 extra workers • Transplants are purchased A B

  8. See the Crops Grow!

  9. Steve began no-till to prevent erosion, but there are many more benefits Organic matter and aggregate stability under different tillage Soil loss under different tillage No-till benefits • ↓ Erosion • ↑ Aggregate stability • ↑ Carbon sequestration • ↑ Water infiltration • ↑ Microbial Biomass • ↓ Bulk density From Drinkwater et al. 1995 From Brady and Weil 2002 From Seybold et al. 2002

  10. No-till and Cover-Crops and Aggregate Stability • My Research: • Soil sampled from fields no tilled for 3, 23, and 30 years • For each year, 2 fields. • For each field, 2 samples. • Measured % water stable aggregates > 250 um on field-moist and dried samples using Standard Soil Science Society of America Slaking method • Fields no-tilled & cover cropped for 23 & 30 years had significantly higher percentage of water stable aggregates than fields no-tilled & cover-cropped for 3 yrs

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