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As news of weed killer resistant plants hits the headlines, Patrick Holden reflects on discussions at the latest Oxford Real Farming Conference, highlighting why the plough may not be the worst option when it comes to nature-friendly cultivation. The theme was how ploughing and cultivation can be good for soil health.
Farmers Weekly We have struggled to terminate fertility leys with shallow cultivations before establishing our first wheats this year, due to a wetter autumn. It has taken four to five passes to get a seed-bed.
But will the current trend away from ploughing towards direct drilling and the accompanying use of glyphosate bring the benefits advocates claim, or could this make matters even worse? Richard Young follows on from his article, Speed the plough or the direct drill and sprayer?
In 2022, the UN warned that damage to land by humans is increasing and 40% of land is degraded , depleted of soil fertility, water, natural resources and biodiversity. The more fertile the soil is, the more organisms it has living in it. However, due to poor farming practices, soil is degrading at an alarming rate.
But she maintains that “organic is still really important,” and that’s why USDA organic standards, food grown without most pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, is the minimum baseline for the ROC certification. Kerston, however, insists that bad practices such as using synthetic fertilizer consistently show up in the data. “If
The same applies for CO2 in the atmosphere adds to the greenhouse gas effect, however carbon sequestered in the soil from the atmosphere via photosynthesis has many co-benefits to build soil fertility and soil structure so that the soil can retain more water. So, if it can’t be measured it does not exist!
Winter cover crops could mean using less fertilizer and herbicide in the Spring. As a kid from rural Iowa, I have joked about growing up with herbicide for breakfast, pesticide for lunch, and fertilizer for supper. One way to reduce agricultural chemicals is planting cover crops in the Fall after the cash crop is harvested.
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