There was a nice summary of Joel Gruver’s 12 ways to manage cover crops in Farm Futures. Joel has been working on cover cropping in the Midwest at Western Illinois University, but got his start in Maryland. One of his ideas, which I have swiped for some of my presentations, is to remind people to avoid haphazard cover cropping. Cover crops can do a lot of things, but we have to be thoughtful about how we plan, plant, treat, and manage them.
To help people think about the ways cover crops affect the soil biological, chemical, and physical conditions, Ray and I have been working on a cover crop web of functionality. Not all the boxes are functional yet, but you can scroll over this image and find more information on many topics.
