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Taking a closer look at cover crops

Research from the University of Missouri is identifying new ways cover crops can improve soil health.

University of Missouri Soil Health Assessment Center Director and assistant soil health professor Jordon Wade says university researchers are learning how cover crops work in drought years.

“We’ve got a bunch of cover crop trials around the state and we’re looking to see if cover crops yielded better. We’ve got strip trials all over, side-by-side comparisons with cereral rye and no cereal rye.”

Wade says there’s also a new five-year study evaluating fertilization rates in the soil, integrating biological indicators to better understand how much nitrogen the soil can supply.

“We’re looking at all kinds of crops and we’re trying to be sensistive to all kinds of landscapes and layer in a cover crop component.”

Wade tells Brownfield farmers could be used for different phases of research and to follow the soil health assessment center online for more details.