Clover Cover Crop

We are always looking for ways that we can do things better on the farm. The Farmer is often reading. He reads magazines like Acres and older farming books--some that predate the post-WWII boom in chemical use in agriculture, some that are written by people from other countries, and some by those who approach farming from an organic angle. One thing that comes up again and again is the need for cover crops, both to suppress weeds, and to fertilize the soil for the next crop.  

We are glad to hear many more conventional farmers talking about cover crops these days. It's a new-old idea that is catching on more and more among farmers of all types. 

We obtained a grant from Project Clarity to purchase clover seed to interseed in our corn crop. Often interseeding is done with a plane or helicopter, at significant expense. We wondered what would happen if we just seeded using our trusty Cyclone just after the last culivation pass.

The corn was becoming too tall to cultivate, and so we attched the seeder to the tractor and filled it with clover seed.

It was a beautiful day in early July--one of those days you are glad to be a farmer and not stuck in an office or factory somewhere.

Here is how the ground under the corn looked after seeding.

I'll let you know later how our experiment turned out!