Research: Effects of Cover Crops on Soil Quality and Crop Yeild in a Lower Quality Soil vs. a High Quality Soil.

Since 1997 the University of Maryland, under the direction of Dr. Ray Weil, has been maintaining research plot on my farm. The focus has been to determine what effect cover crops have on soil quality in 2 fields with a different history. Various observations have been made and are shown below.

These 2 fields are side by side and are same soil type. The High quality field has not been tilled for over 30 years and has 5.8% organic matter. The low quality field has not been tilled for 8 years and has 3.8% organic matter. We intend to carry this research out over several years to see the long term effects of cover crops. 1999 was an extremly dry year and yields were low, but it proved the positive effects of long-term no-till. (4 replications, each approx. 15'x 100') hairy vetch/rye cover - 110.4 bu/A no cover - 107.5 bu/A difference - 2.9 bu/A average yeild in plot. 108.95 Low Quality Soil Field (3 reps) hairy vetch/rye cover - 81.2 bu/A no cover - 72.1 bu/A difference - 9.1 bu/A average yeild in plot - 76.65 bu/A difference between high and low quality fields - 32.3 bu/A

In 2000 we had a very good corn year and the yields were nearly identical in all the plots. This seems to indicate that it is during the stressfull years that the most benefits will be realized from the use of cover crops and no-till.