Dave Brandt, Gabe Brown , et al

[Fred]

Having just finished "Growing a Revolution" I have a question

Is anybody doing ,succeeding, conventional agriculture with cover crops as they do in the US in the UK,

Conservation Ag , covers ,diverse rotation ,no-till, = less N needed and less chemicals

 

[Farmer Roy]

Having just finished "Growing a Revolution" I have a question

Is anybody doing ,succeeding, conventional agriculture with cover crops as they do in the US in the UK,

Conservation Ag , covers ,diverse rotation ,no-till, = less N needed and less chemicals

Apparently not . . .

 

[Fred]

yep

 

[Clive]

Don't quite understand the post ?

Loads of us successfully cover crooping and practicing conservation agriculture / zerotill in the uk and have been for a while now

 

[Farmer Roy]

I think the OP was asking for any comments or feedback from anyone who was . . .

 

[Fred]

Sorry it was a bit ambiguous ,

I have just finished reading "Growing a revolution " by David Montgomery of "dirt" fame

In the book he visits various no-till and "conservation ag" farmers .

Several of these claim , that once they have a full cover crop system in place , that they are able to
1 Reduce fertiliser to 0
2 Reduce Pesticides to minimal
3 Increase yields
4 More profit

So what I was asking is there anybody in the UK that has done this , e.g. used cover cropping to reduce, fert and pesticides , whilst producing either the same yields or same profit.

If so what are they doing .

 

[TelesnaAg]

I think when you look at gabe and dave...it was a long process to get to wgat they claim...also the state if your soil when you start could determine the time frame to reach these successes....

Im starting now and id say 15 years to really be in the swibg if things...my main aim now is soil structure and health..and reduce chemical used year on year...

Fert ...im still planning that one...

Ant...

 

[Steel]

At a field day I went to Rick Bieber said he considered the number of crops in the mix to one year of each. 10 species cover crop is worth 10 years. Depending on the state of the soil it could take 20 years worth of crops for the soil to recover, but you can to that in 2 years of cover crop with multiple species. The more diverse the better.

 

[llamedos]

https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/my-nuffield-scholarship-blog.42176/

https://www.agricology.co.uk/farmers-and-growers/andrew-howard

https://www.agricology.co.uk/resour...ntial-companion-cropping-and-intercropping-uk