Cover crop establishment

Dr Andy Clark · Professor Sjoerd W. Duiker

2026年6月 · Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing

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Cover crops provide multiple benefits including nutrient management, erosion control, and soil improvement. Timely cover crop establishment is a primary challenge and a barrier to wider adoption. Cover cropping is particularly sensitive to growing season length and rainfall. Drilling the cover crop after harvest is the most consistent method. Broadcasting followed by shallow incorporation can also be successful, while broadcasting without incorporation gives the least satisfactory results. If there are insufficient growing degree days for cover crop establishment after harvest, cover crops can be interseeded or overseeded. Competition from the cash crop for light, water, and nutrients can compromise cover crop survival until cash crop harvest, while the limits of broadcast seeding apply as well. Research on cover crops worldwide is addressing many of these challenges, but more is needed on the best species and the optimum timing for these alternative seeding methods, especially as influenced by site-specific conditions.

作者简介

Dr Andy Clark recently retired as National Communications Director of the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Program. The SARE Program operates under cooperative agreements between the University of Maryland, USA and the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Dr Clark led the communications arm of the SARE Program that was instrumental in developing and disseminating sustainable crop and livestock management practices in the United States. As Communications Director, Dr Clark oversaw the development of more than 40 publications, including editing the Third Edition of the SARE publication Managing Cover Crops Profitably, widely regarded as the standard reference for farmers, agronomists and others interested in adoption of cover crops on farms in the United States.

Dr Sjoerd W. Duiker is Professor of Soil Management and Applied Soil Physics at The Pennsylvania State University, USA. He has made significant contributions to both research and extension in developing more sustainable soil management practices in such areas as no-till systems, the use of cover crops, mulches and more diverse crop rotations. He is a member of the Governing Board of the Northeast Cover Crops Council which brings together universities, farmers, government agencies and others to optimise cover crop use in the north-eastern states of the USA. Professor Duiker is also a co-editor of the forthcoming Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing collection Weed management in Conservation Agriculture systems.