- Location
- Cambridgeshire UK
I'm banking on you being right here...the experience of Rick Beiber and others from across the pond that we heard at Groundswell suggests that they see a major benefit in year one. I'm convinced that we're seeing a big improvement in SOM building where we've been cover cropping, but it's hard to get concrete results from soil tests. With the very dry spring we've had the spring crops have all caught up really well behind covers, whether it's mycorrhizae association or moist humus carrying the crop through the 'drought' I don't know, I'm just happy to keep on keeping on without cultivating. It's a religious belief to be sure...The cover crop may look better on top of ground but if you microscope both soils you may see better fungi etc in the no tilled field, and one year is not something to set a program by...
Cover crop benefits from the research ive seen your looking at a 10-20 year process...
Ant....
So would you never do a light cultivation if you felt it was an overall benefit to your business and I have to say to your soils, sad wet soils are not good soils!I'm banking on you being right here...the experience of Rick Beiber and others from across the pond that we heard at Groundswell suggests that they see a major benefit in year one. I'm convinced that we're seeing a big improvement in SOM building where we've been cover cropping, but it's hard to get concrete results from soil tests. With the very dry spring we've had the spring crops have all caught up really well behind covers, whether it's mycorrhizae association or moist humus carrying the crop through the 'drought' I don't know, I'm just happy to keep on keeping on without cultivating. It's a religious belief to be sure...
I hope not, but who knows? Soils are getting kinder all the time, but we've one or two that lay wet so we'll be doing some moling this autumn. Beyond that I wouldn't want to go, a cultivation would be undoing several years work and I might get excommunicated from the church.So would you never do a light cultivation if you felt it was an overall benefit to your business and I have to say to your soils, sad wet soils are not good soils!
View attachment 543798 View attachment 543800 And @martian it was a religion even back in the early 1800's
I can't take much credit - John Pawsey posted it on twitterNow that's some good research there! How did you come across that?!
Oh dear.... has anyone been following the Times correspondence following their (I suppose understandably) simplistic interpretations of Groundswell? Letter today from someone (sorry don't know how to put up a link) asserting that ploughing is the only way to incorporate manures in poor land! He's obviously missed the point completely and doesn't credit earthworms with anything.
One of our more erudite members should reply (martian pos?.)
CB
or should we explain how his ideas are not quite right!!Write back and tell him hes thick as a short plank
if you are trying to improve grass land with organic manure do you plough it down? no, do you plough down artificial fertilisers ? no. ploughing down will put the dung into anaerobic conditions which may actually do more harm than good.Oh dear.... has anyone been following the Times correspondence following their (I suppose understandably) simplistic interpretations of Groundswell? Letter today from someone (sorry don't know how to put up a link) asserting that ploughing is the only way to incorporate manures in poor land! He's obviously missed the point completely and doesn't credit earthworms with anything.
One of our more erudite members should reply (martian pos?.)
CB