Frankly-Speaking-logo_0324_1000px (1).png

No-Tilling Into a ‘Living Mulch’

Frankly-Speaking Logo

Instead of leaving fields bare after corn silage harvest, adding a living mulch may help no-tillers prevent costly soil erosion and improve soil health.

USDA scientists in Minnesota have found seeding kura clover as a living mulch shows promise as a way to improve dairy profits by growing forage between the rows of no-tilled corn or soybeans. In the off-season, the second crop acts as a living mulch that also improves the infiltration of water and helps warm up the soil. 

Below ground, the kura clover improves soil structure, helps assimilate excess nitrogen and sometimes stores carbon. It also provides nitrogen for the subsequent cash crop.

Trap More Moisture

The researchers found kura clover improves the soil’s ability to absorb rainfall by as much as 10 times over conventionally-planted fields. Used as a perennial cover crop, kura clover doesn’t need to be reseeded every year.

“A living mulch is a companion crop system that provides the benefits of a mulch in annual row crop systems through the use of a low-growing perennial ground cover,” says John Baker, soil scientist and research leader at the USDA’s Soil and Water Management Research Unit in St. Paul, Minn. “We use kura clover, which lives for many years without requiring replanting, and we can plant corn and soybeans into it.”

A major drawback to a typical silage system is that it leaves the soil bare and unprotected after harvest. This can lead to a long-term decrease in soil organic matter because none of the…

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.

Lessiter frank

Frank Lessiter

Frank Lessiter founded Lessiter Media in 1981 and has spent more than 50 years in the agricultural and equine publishing business. He still oversees all of the company's publications as Chairman and Editorial Director, with an Emphasis on American Farriers Journal and No-Till Farmer magazines.

Contact: lessitef@lesspub.com

Top Articles

Current Issue

Cover_NTF_January_0125.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