“Sequestering Carbon on the Farm” Anne Harnish, Lancaster Farming, Apr 17, 2020
“Hill and his father operate Harborview Farms in Rock Hall, which has gradually shifted to 100% no-till, using cover crops in a conventional corn-soybean-wheat rotation. Hill said he “plants green” by seeding new crops into living cover crops, and uses a roller-crimper instead of herbicides to kill down the cover crop.
“Now I spend less on tillage and diesel fuel, because basically all we do is plant, spray and harvest. There’s no tillage,” Hill said.
Improving soil health with living cover crops has many benefits to a farmer besides carbon sequestration.
Hill said the cover crops soak up excessive rainfall in rainy periods, and the soils with cover crops stay more moist during drought spells. The cover crops suppress weeds, so Hill doesn’t need to spray nearly as often as he did before. The farm’s tractors and equipment can get out earlier in the spring to plant, since soil compaction is less of an issue because of the living roots. Hill’s crop yields are the same as with tillage.”
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