Cover Cropping, Twin-Row Strip-Till Continue to Rise

More than 50% of benchmark respondents utilize cover crops, while the percent of strip-tillers planting twin rows has more than doubled.

Average-seeding-population.jpg

As strip-tillers search for efficient, economical ways to retain moisture and nutrients in their soils, an increasing number are turning to cover crops. Analysis of the 3rd Annual Strip-Till Operational Benchmark Study revealed another uptick in their use.

The number of farmers planting cover crops in strip-tilled fields topped 50% for the first time, and continued a steady increase during the last 3 years. The 2016 study showed that 53.3% of strip-tillers planted cover crops last year, up from 48.4% in 2014 and 44.1% from 2013.

While these figures don’t yet compare to the 72.7% of no-tillers who planted cover crops in 2015, according to No-Till Farmer’s 8th Annual No-Till Operational Benchmark Study, it will be worth watching whether use among strip-tillers continues to increase.

For the second year, farmers were asked to identify which types of cover crops they’re seeding into strip-tilled fields. Once again, cereal rye was the most popular species, with 64.5% seeding this cover, up more than 4 percentage points from 2014.

Second most popular by a wide margin were radishes at 50.2%. However, this number was down by about 10 percentage points year-over-year. Also seeing a substantial decline was ryegrass, from 46.6% according to last year’s study, to 36.5% in 2015.

The biggest gain came in the percentage of strip-tillers using rapeseed, which jumped from 9.7% to 21.8%. Also seeing sizeable increases were buckwheat from 1.9% to 8.5% and barley from 1% to 6.2%.

Do-strip-tillers-plant-cover-crops.jpg

New additions to the list this year were turnips, used by…

To view the content, please subscribe or login.
 Premium content is for our Digital-only and Premium subscribers. A Print-only subscription doesn't qualify. Please purchase/upgrade a subscription with the Digital product to get access to all No-Till Farmer content and archives online. Learn more about the different versions and what is included.

Zemlicka headshot

Jack Zemlicka

Jack Zemlicka was the Technology Editor for No-Till Farmer. His coverage included precision farming practices, products and trends, which can improve efficiency and productivity for no-till farmers.

He joined Lessiter Publications Ag Division in 2012 and also served as managing editor of Strip-Till Farmer.

Top Articles

Current Issue

Cover_CTG_1124.jpg

No-Till Farmer

Get full access NOW to the most comprehensive, powerful and easy-to-use online resource for no-tillage practices. Just one good idea will pay for your subscription hundreds of times over.

Subscribe Now

View More

Must Read Free Eguides

Download these helpful knowledge building tools

View More
Top Directory Listings