Managing diverse cover crops, diverse pastures or diverse forage crops

Things to think about when managing cover crops, diverse pastures AND diverse forage crops

Setting seed

• Letting diverse crops/pastures set seed can generate seed banks for annual and/or perennial species - this is usually beneficial in a pastoral context but care should be taken in arable contexts.

Weed management

Interrow cover crop between vines.

• Diversity can limit weed management tools such as selective herbicides.

• Different weeds indicate different soil conditions which can inform your management; question why weed species are present (root cause), if they are an economic problem or just an aesthetic one, and if they provide any benefits.

• Don’t be afraid to spray weeds before or after crop establishment if they threaten your yield, however post-emergence weed sprays may also take out some of what you have sown.

• Plant diversity will help reduce weed pressure, especially once beyond initial establishment.

Fertiliser

• Diverse crops/pastures might benefit from appropriate fertiliser if forage yield is a high priority, especially if sown into relatively poor or unhealthy soils. However high rates of soluble nutrients could negatively impact plant-microbe relationships.

• Anecdotal evidence from farmers suggests that unfertilised diverse crops initially grow more below ground than above ground, so can be slower to get going but often catch up.

• Anecdotal evidence from farmers also suggests that animals often consume less dry matter when eating diverse crops/pastures.

Grazing

• High density grazing (deck/trample) can be used to direct drill a subsequent crop or pasture without cultivation or chemicals (usually not in arable systems).

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Things to think about when managing diverse cover crops and diverse forage crops ONLY

Grazing

• Pastoral farmers will generally utilise as much forage as possible without pugging or compromising animal performance (~80% utilisation is usually possible). However, leaving more residual can benefit multi-graze crops, or where building soil health is a high priority (often true for arable farmers).

• Back fencing allows you to manage residual and supports crop regrowth.

Duration

• Diverse crops can be maintained for short periods (e.g. six weeks between arable harvest and autumn planting) or long periods and be grazed once or multiple times, depending on species selection.

David Birkett explains how 20 years retaining crop residues has improved soil health and organic matter.

Nigel Greenwood explains how cover crops help keep a living root and a solar panel in the ground at all times.

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Things to think about when managing diverse pastures ONLY

Grazing management

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Diverse crop featuring sunflowers and other species.

Grazing management of diverse pastures will have a significant impact on the performance, expression and dominance of various species. This is similar for mowing timing/severity.

• Graze for what you want rather than what you have.

• Some farmers graze at high covers and trample a significant proportion, others graze at lower covers to lower residuals with minimal trampling, and some a mix of both. All approaches are based on allowing full recovery of pastures prior to grazing.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Check out the full QS case study on Residue management and cover crops

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