Remove Cash Crop Remove Pasture Remove Pesticide
article thumbnail

Hungry and Seemingly Unstoppable: Grasshoppers Invade Canada’s Prairies

Modern Farmer

Their meals of choice are: barley, oats, corn, soy, wheat, rye and alfalfa, the mainstay commercial crops of prairie farmers. Unfortunately, prevention isn’t as easy as spraying the larvae with pesticides. This means farms have to keep the crop alive and use up precious water resources in an already water-restricted environment.

article thumbnail

Agricultural Diversification: Practice and Policy

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

Diversity within livestock systems, as with having chickens or small ruminants follow cattle in a pasture-based rotation, also provides multiple benefits, including pest suppression. Photo credit: Crop Trust. Rotating crops also significantly reduces pests and diseases.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

How to Improve Long-Term Soil Health on Your Farm

Farmbrite

Healthy soil can mean increased yields (and profits) as well as fewer inputs like fertilizer or pesticides. One common method is the traditional or sequential crop rotation, where different crops are grown in a planned sequence over a period of years. Avoid overgrazing your pasture lands.

article thumbnail

Can Taller Cover Crops Help Clean the Water in Farm Country?

Civil Eats

Since the 1940s , oats, wheat, hay, and pasture have been replaced by a duoculture of corn and soybeans. And when nitrates are present, it’s inevitable that other contaminants, such as pesticides , are also polluting the water. ” Mark Stokes has been using no-till cropping for 26 years.

Crop 121
article thumbnail

Commentary: America’s Cropland – Talk Is Cheap When It Comes to Sustainability or Organic Farming

Daily Yonder

One way to reduce agricultural chemicals is planting cover crops in the Fall after the cash crop is harvested. Winter cover crops could mean using less fertilizer and herbicide in the Spring. This means that many farmers continue to apply herbicides to eliminate a winter cover crop. But the crop duster did.

Farming 52
article thumbnail

These State Lawmakers Are Collaborating on Policies that Support Regenerative Agriculture

Civil Eats

Against the backdrop of a carefully managed perennial pasture, the gathering focused on legislative approaches to promoting regenerative farming and ranching practices, which the group believes can galvanize support across partisan and rural-urban divides.