Tom McKinney remembers only once during his childhood when it rained a full 2 1/2 inches in one rainfall event on his family’s farm in Indiana. Born in 1958, he started helping his dad by picking up sticks and other tasks by about 1965.
Today, the corn and soybean farmer says it’s not uncommon to get a 2 1/2-, 4 1/2- or even 6-inch rain. Moisture is a good thing for crop farmers, but too much is disastrous. Downpours that come right at or shortly after planting prevent a good stand of crops. And flooding doesn’t just affect farmers.
The Big Cicero Creek, which runs through Tipton, Indiana, where McKinney went to high school, has flooded several times in recent years.
Farmers and the community started talking: How can we hold more moisture in the soil?
A speaker came to town and recommended cover crops.
While some were hesitant, McKinney and others started planting a few acres of cover crops. McKinney continues to increase his use of covers each year.
“By golly, we’ve been doing cover crops on several hundred acres, and it seems to be working,” says McKinney, who now co-chairs the Indiana Smart Agriculture Work Group with Don Villwock, a farmer from Edwardsport, Indiana.
Benefits of cover crops
With cover crops, McKinney has seen an increase in soil organic matter—the foundation of his land’s productivity and its ability to hold water. He’s also reduced weed pressure.
“On every single acre where we had a good application and seeding of cover crops, we had zero weeds,” McKinney says. No broadleaves or grasses popped up in the rows of soybeans planted into the knee-high cover crop, which he terminated after the soybean planting.
Source: solutionsfromtheland.org
Photo Credit: gettyimages-prostock-studio
Categories: Indiana, Business