Special Report
Cover crops: ‘It’s kind of an ‘aha’ moment’
One of the participants in a farmer-led cover crops panel at the On-Farm Network Conference was Steve Berger, who farms near Wellman in Washington County, Iowa.
Berger farms in partnership with his father, Dennis, on a corn, soybean and farrow-finish swine operation. The Bergers have farmed no-till for 36 years and have been using cover crops for 12 years to protect soil and water quality.
Berger says they initially planted cover crops to help reduce soil erosion, but he’s also been very pleased with the improvement he has seen in organic matter.
“We see organic matters climbing about a tenth of a percent a year—and that’s a good thing,” Berger says. “There’s just a lot of advantages to increased organic matter. One is water-holding capacity. The soil is able to hold more nitrogen—and it just resists erosion.
“It’s kind of an ‘aha’ moment that’s hard to explain,” he says. “But once you’re out there and see it, when you can kind of compare fields across the fence, it’s easy to see.”
Following the cover crops discussion in Ames, we visited with Berger, who is also a participant in ISA’s On-Farm Network.
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