New analysis of 13 years of cover crop impacts on following-year crop production has revealed yields are boosted for vegetable crops, but often reduced for grains.
Studies showing the economic costs and benefits of cover crops exist, but not on a long-term scale, says Richard Vyn, associate professor of food, agriculture and resource economics at the University of Guelph’s Ridgetown campus.
Associate professor Richard Vyn at the Ridgetown campus of the University of Guelph and his colleague Laura Van Eerd, professor of environmental sciences, analyzed 13 years of data from Van Eerd’s cover crop trials.
These results showed “considerable variation,” with cereal rye and rye-radish mix suppressing grain profitability by 10 and seven per cent.
The same covers, by contrast, brought increases of eight and 12 per cent in vegetables.
On its own, radish brought a 16 per cent profitability increase in vegetables, though there was no visible impact on grains.
Vyn says the significant differences were surprising, though he cautions against extrapolating such findings across Ontario.
