What Did We Learn in 2020?
Connecting Farmers To Soil Health
Hello, Friends.
Today we wanted to touch on some of the interesting observations we made from the 2020 full season growing season.
1.
The Battle for sunlight
By allowing even emergence, each plant species has an opportunity to propagate and establish itself before the canopy becomes totally enclosed. Without a diversity of plants photosynthesizing evenly across the canopy, the diversity of root exudates will be limited. In other words, a diversity of root exudates means a diversity of soil biology.
A soil with diverse and stimulated soil biology has the ability to function as Mother Nature intended. (solubilizing minerals, cycling carbon, infiltrating & storing water)
15 Species Blend.
All plants were given a fair shot at sunlight.
15 Species Blend (but 40 Ibs of Barley)
All plants were not given a fair shot at sunlight.
These pictures have the same number of species (15 species blend) but a much higher percentage of barley in the one blend. As you can see, most photosynthesis will be taking place via a barley plant and the rest of the plant species have very limited access to sunlight. In this scenario, the soil biology will be limited to whatever is attracted to a barley root exudate.
What did we learn? It is very important to have a balance of each species emerging together all with a fair chance of establishment (sunlight).
2.
different soil types
The crop below is a full-season cover crop used for grazing. This land is productive but prone to flooding. Notice this is almost exclusively cool-season plants.
Just 3 miles south from the above photo, the full season cover on "poor ground". Notice this is almost exclusively warm-season plants. (water-efficient plants)
A reminder, the two above photos are the exact same blends, sown within a few days of each other. (3 miles apart)
What did we learn? Mother Nature is "expressing" different plant species depending on soil chemistry characteristics and the soil's water-holding capacity to bring it back to balance.
A great book to learn more about this is called: When Weeds Talk by Jay L. McCaman.
3.
Wide Silage window
By not having cereals totally dominate the canopy, we allow light to still reach the slower establishing legumes (vetch & clover). This keeps those plants vegetative longer, staying high in protein and holding more moisture.
What did we learn? By achieving a true diverse canopy, plant diversity extends your silage window by 2 or 3 times vs. a monoculture or a cereal dominated blend.
4.
The Re-growth
Expected regrowth - ryegrass, cereal rye, red clover, hairy vetch.
In 2020, most areas in Manitoba were extremely dry with almost no significant rainfall after July. This resulted in substantially poor regrowth with a few exceptions.
More re-growth due to wet fall
Less re-growth due to lack of moisture
What did we learn? Re-growing plants enjoy rain.
5.
Soil aggregation & Water infiltration
"It's not how much rain you get in the rain gauge, it's how much water your soil can infiltrate"
What did we learn? By balancing the Carbon:Nitrogen ratio at roughly the ideal 24:1, you are allowing the microbes to build soil aggregates. Strong and stable soil aggregates create pore space which house soil biology and allows water to infiltrate and be held in your soil.
To learn more about Carbon:Nitrogen Ratio, click here.
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Early Book Discount
Early book discounts on the 2021 Full Season Cover are still available until December 31st.
Reach out and find a dealer in your area: www.coversandco.ca/team
With Gratitude,
Covers & Co. Team
Joseph Gardiner, Travis Avery, Mark Fallis, Owen Taylor