Protecting the quality of the soil
Cover crops provide multiple benefits to soil health and the growing conditions of subsequent crops. Their value to sustainable agriculture is well proven: cover crops prevent soil erosion, improve the soil’s physical and biological properties, enhance moisture retention, suppress weeds, reduce the presence of detrimental insects and diseases as well as help preserve biodiversity. Furthermore, they act as green manure by sequestering nitrogen and other nutrients thus supplying nutrients to the following crop. Some cover crops are able to break into compacted soil layers, so the following crop’s roots can develop more easily.
Working efficiently and ecologically
Seeding cover crops involves extra work for farmers. The period after harvesting is usually very busy, so finding the time to plant a cover crop in addition to performing other tillage work can be rather challenging. Furthermore, another pass over the fields with heavy machines is detrimental to the soil as it may lead to soil compaction. When combined with tillage tools, the Kuhn CCX 9000 and SH 600 cover crop seeders allow the farmer to establish cover crops while performing soil tillage at the same time.
This allows the farmer time savings of 50% to 55% as well as fuel savings of 45% to 50%. By combining two different operations in one this new technology helps to preserve the quality of the soil considerably as additional passes over the field become unnecessary. The soil can benefit from the numerous advantages of cover crops without having to suffer from a further processing step.
Story from the Sustainability Report 2017