LUBBOCK, Texas – According to the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), soil health is defined as the continued capacity of a soil to function as a vital living ecosystem that supports plants, animals and humans.
What this means is farmers are making management decisions that are going to enhance the viability of their farm and land for future generations.
These management practices include crop rotation, cover crops and fallow periods.
The biggest benefit from a cover crop is to reduce erosion of the top soil where all of the nutrients and microbial activity takes place. Traditionally, in our region, wheat and rye are the two most common cover crops.
“Because of some of the cost share programs that NRCS offers a lot of farmers are going the direction of including a mixture of species,” said Katie Lewis of Texas A&M AgriLife. “The push is really the diversity that they create in the soil, you’re enhancing the plant diversity but also enhancing the microbial diversity as well.”
One of the challenges that South Plains farmers face with utilizing a cover crop is dealing with a late harvest.
This year most cotton was harvested in November, early December. This doesn’t allow the cover crop enough time to establish and enhance the soil before moving to the next crop.
“With a cover crop I feel like there are more risk associated because of our environmental conditions being a semi arid environment,” Lewis said. “Putting the cover crop in and then having a dry winter, a dry spring can really increase the risk factor from a production standpoint.”
February is a great time to have soil tested which will help with knowing what nutrients are available.
“From a fertilizer standpoint, farmers can potentially reduce how much fertilizer they’re applying if they know what residual concentrations are in the soil,” Lewis said. “Reach out to Texas A&M AgriLife Research or AgriLife Extension with any questions or concerns that you have we’d be willing to help.”
