Managing for Profit

Cover crops slow topsoil loss

The data is not all in yet, but producers say cover crop usage will conserve soil and nutrients.  Mark Mueller tells Brownfield he joined the Soil Health Partnership to preserve his top soil.

“It takes 500 years to make an inch of topsoil, and we can lose that in one or two generations,” said Mueller, who farms in Northeast Iowa.  “I’m trying to preserve my topsoil and I figured the Soil Health Partnership would help me learn to do that.”  Mueller concedes that his production is a bit less with conservation farming than it would be with conventional tillage, but he maintains that he still comes out ahead because costs are less.

France native Benoit Delbeqc and his wife now run the Indiana farm passed down from Delbeqc’s father-in-law.  The couple continues the quarter century tradition of conservation farming, plus they began employing cover crops in the past couple of years.  Delbecq anticipates that it will be a few years before he has enough data to determine the results of sustainable farming.

“The effects of cover crops on soil health and microbial life takes a while to get established,” said Delbecq.  “In the end, what you’re looking for is not only yield, but profits.”

AUDIO: Mark Mueller and Benoit Delbecq (3 min. MP3)