<\/p>\n
DOVE CREEK \u2013 Planting cover crops instead of fallowing fields may boost soil health, but farmers shouldn\u2019t expect their efforts to work immediately. Cover crops also increase costs.<\/p>\n
That was the takeaway from a workshop presented by the Southwestern Colorado Research Center and attended by more than 60 farmers and ranchers last week in Dove Creek at the Public Service Center.<\/p>\n
Blaine Nebeker, who farms in San Juan County, Utah, said cover crops offer him benefits largely because he has switched to organic farming \u2013 benefiting from the higher prices he can get for organics, principally his winter wheat. But organic farming narrows the fertilizers he can use.<\/p>\n
\u201cOrganic production has made it possible for us to keep farming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nebeker was one of several farmers who presented summaries of their results based on their participation in a study of cover crops led by the SWCRC.<\/p>\n
Cover crops are especially valuable as nitrogen fixers for Nebeker because of his limited options for fertilizers.<\/p>\n
The other point he brought home is importance of luck: Nature must cooperate to get full benefits of cover crops.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been tough\u201d he said. \u201cThe moisture has not cooperated.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2019, he said, the failure of the monsoons limited the growth \u2013 and the soil benefits \u2013 he received from his cover crops.<\/p>\n
Still, Nebeker believes persistent efforts growing cover crops will provide benefits, but it takes time, and only limited soil health benefits were seen after only a few years of using cover crops.<\/p>\n
\u201cCover crops will be beneficial even if it keeps you from making one pass (on the fields to keep weeds down). The weed suppression alone would save you some money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Steve Barry, who farms near Eastland, Utah, also reported similar, subtle benefits based on his use of cover crops.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe water stayed in the fields, and that\u2019s a good thing,\u201d Berry said of his use of cover crops. \u201cBefore, if the ground just smelled the rain it would create a funnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barry added he could not say that his yields improved after using cover crops compared with his neighbors, but he noted more healthful soil did provide benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do know if I planted seeds, they came up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dave Fisher, who farms from Cahone to the Utah line, said he participated in the study to examine the benefits of cover crops \u2013 principally to introduce nitrogen into the soil and to cut down on erosion.<\/p>\n
He noted the economics of using cover crops would improve by combining its use with grazing. However, he said the area he planted had not been grazed in 20 years and lacked the fencing to make grazing practical.<\/p>\n
The delicate economic balance of using cover crops means the costs to get proper fencing to incorporate with cover crops made that option economically unfeasible during the study period.<\/p>\n
In a question-and-answer session, Nebeker noted cover crops require management and attention like any other crop.<\/p>\n
\u201cA cover crop can turn into a weed if you\u2019re not careful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
parmijo@ the-journal.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Healthier soil eventually, but it takes years to see benefits<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[281,21,13,28,60],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-66216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-agriculture","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90380,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66216\/revisions\/90380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66216"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=66216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}