Crop Rotation

An old farmer once told me that if I just farmed half of my land and did it right, instead of farming fence row to fence row, I could produce better crops and make more profit.

I didn't really understand what he was talking about until I started trucking farming and planted continuous crops of tomatoes and other vegetables. When harvest time came we had a heck of a time of getting the vegetables out of the field without driving over and damaging lots of good producing plants.

The following year I planted all my vegetables in 22 row plots with a 22 row plot of cover crop between it Then continued on with that planting pattern through out the field. This worked great. The produce wagons or trucks could drive over the cover crop causing no loss of vegetables and we only had to carry the vegetables 11 steps either directions to the vehicle. I used the 22-row spacing because the irrigation sprinklers reached 11 rows each direction.

In the cover crop area I planted a legume and a grass such as vetch and elbon rye during the cool season. The vetch was a tap rooted plant, which was able to use moisture from deep and nitrogen from the air if properly inoculated.

The rye is a very strong fibrous rooted plant that fed from shallow and took nitrogen from the soil. The rye is also a good nematode deterrent plant. The vetch bloomed through the late winter and early spring which invited many beneficial insects such as lady beetles and green lacewings and many other adult beneficials that needed the nectar for energy. The rye would always grow faster than the vetch, shading it out, so I could mow with a shredder but tall enough not to harm the vetch. This would give the vetch more light and slow the growth of the rye for awhile. Then the vetch would catch up and vine up the rye stalks. Then both grew well and tall enough to help stop the wind from sand blasting the near by young vegetable plants.

In the warm seasons I used a grass cover crop only. We couldn't use legumes because of cotton root rot in the area. Cotton root rot is a problem only when the soil is warm. Hybrid sorghums of any type did well, even corn. Corn stimulates penicillin and trichoderma in the soil to help knock out root rots. Any of these cover crops could have been cut for feed but we weren't in the cattle raising business, the organic material was more valuable to us as a soil builder.

When planting the cover crop seeds we broadcast with a cyclone seeder over the old vegetable plants and if we had manure compost or rock minerals to spread in that plot we would put it out and then drag over it with a disk harrow and blend it all in the top inch or two of soil. Then irrigate to get the cover started as soon as possible.

As for as how thick, or the ratio of legume to grass you should plant is up to you. You can make that decision on the cost of the seed. And if you want a lot of small plants with a quick cover you should plant thick. If you want thick stalks and deep roots to break up hardpan, plant thin which uses less seed per acre.

This rotation program from cash crop to cover crop then back to cash crop worked excellently in my vegetable operation. However, it is not the gospel. It is only presented for ideas. Each farm operation is different.

Malcolm Beck