•
COVER CROPS
•
THE
VEGETABLE
FARMER •
MARCH 2017
“R
R
esearch and
development is at
the core of our
business,” stressed Heather
Oldfield, Elsoms’ CropManager
for cover crops. “Although catch
crops and cover crops sit within
our agricultural crop portfolio,
we are workingwith partners in
the vegetable sector, including a
Lincolnshire salad producer and
a long-term trial with Severn
Trent Water.”
Adam Freer is a Catchment
Advisor for Severn Trent based in
Nottinghamshire. He explained
his company’s interest in catch
and cover crops. “To drive
benefits inwater quality we
need towork with partners who
manage the land,” he explained.
“We advocatemaintaining good
soil health and improving the
accuracy of application.”
UK drinkingwater standards
are 50 parts per billion (ppb) for
nitrates, and just 0.1 ppb for a
single pesticide, or 0.5 ppb for
all pesticides in total. To put it
into perspective, Adam
explained that this is less than a
single slug pellet of metaldehyde
in an Olympic size swimming
pool. The costs of contamination
can be considerable. Aminiscule
amount of the £40 oilseed rape
herbicide, quinmerac, shut down
a water treatment plant in
Warwickshire for 14 days and
cost £150,000, and certain
actives, such as chlopyralid and
metaldehyde can be particularly
hard to remove.
“Increasing organic matter is a
goodway to hold on to
nutrients and pesticides,” Adam
added. “Some of our farmers
have experimentedwith
different [cover crop] mixes to
see what works best.” Severn
Trent provides farmers in eligible
catchments grant funding of up
to £5,000 a year for certain
schemes, andwhile different
water companies will each have
a different approach, he stressed
that all will be actively engaging
with farmers to reduce pollution
from agricultural sources.
In terms of whichmix is best,
Daniel Dabbelt of German
breeder P. H. Petersen explained
that it depends onwhat you are
trying to achieve andwhen in
the rotation the crop is grown.
Although a lot of current
interest is focused on
biofumigation for different
nematode species, he pointed
out: “Cover crops are a good
way to protect soils. Even dead
organic material, such as Oil
radishwhich has been killed by
frosts, can still provide benefits.
The amount of organic matter
provided by the crop depends
on the species used in themix
and the sowing date.”
He alsowarned that growers
should compare different cover
cropmixes carefully for quality.
For example, those produced by
Petersen and sold by Elsoms only
use certified seed. “If we can’t
test something in a laboratory
situation thenwe won’t make a
claim for it on the product,”
agreed Heather Oldfield.
28
BENEFITS OF COVER CROPS
HIGHLIGHTED ATWORKSHOP
Cover crops can have a number of benefits, from
improving soil structure and health through to helping to
reduce pollution from nitrates and pesticides. Elsoms
Seeds recently held a seminar at their Spalding offices
which explored how cover crops can be used by
vegetable growers and showcased some of the options
available from their partners Saaten-Union and P. H.
Petersen.
Richard Crowhurst
reports.
