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Farmer looks at cover crops’ long range benefit
Rick Juchems grows cover crops on his northeast Iowa farm to conserve soil and water, and also to feed what he refers to as the livestock that reside in the soil.
“There’s just so many organisms – night crawlers, bacteria, fungus – that all need something green to feed on, to multiply and produce nutrients for the cash crop that we want to grow the next year,” said Juchems, during an interview with Brownfield Ag News at the Farm Progress Show.
Even though it costs to maintain cover crops, Juchems tells Brownfield the return will come later.
“I’m doing a better job of keeping the soil and cleaning the water for the future,” he said. “If we don’t do it now, there won’t be any soil here to grow the crops that we need for the population that’s going to explode.”
With five years’ experience, Juchems sows cereal rye in the fall into standing corn and plants oats and radishes in soybeans.
“There’s a long range benefit on it,” said Juchems. “You have to look forward, going backward isn’t going to help.”
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