Feldspar
Member
- Location
- Essex, Cambs and Suffolk
Most of no-till studies that have been conducted thus far have been concerned with moisture conservation in regions where evapotranspiration more freqently exceeds precipitation than in the UK. In the UK, however, we need to be concerned not so much with moisture conservation but rather moisture reduction at planting.
With this in mind if we are drillling into a cover crop we want it to be removing moisture as best it can so the soil surface is not overly wet and sticky. The choice of when to terminate a cover crop has a bearing on this requirement. This study
http://www.jswconline.org/content/44/1/57.short
concludes that drilling into a live cover crop would better achieve this aim than a termination with glyphosate a few weeks prior to drilling. A further benefit of this method would be that the cover crop has a further 2 weeks of growth which will increase biomass and possibly fixed N.
So my quesiton is whether cover crop users have noticed differences in soil moisture as a result of cover crop termination timings? Also, to anyone that heard Frederic Thomas speak, what were his reasons for drilling into live cover?
With this in mind if we are drillling into a cover crop we want it to be removing moisture as best it can so the soil surface is not overly wet and sticky. The choice of when to terminate a cover crop has a bearing on this requirement. This study
http://www.jswconline.org/content/44/1/57.short
concludes that drilling into a live cover crop would better achieve this aim than a termination with glyphosate a few weeks prior to drilling. A further benefit of this method would be that the cover crop has a further 2 weeks of growth which will increase biomass and possibly fixed N.
So my quesiton is whether cover crop users have noticed differences in soil moisture as a result of cover crop termination timings? Also, to anyone that heard Frederic Thomas speak, what were his reasons for drilling into live cover?