A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ® C A L I F O R N I A Trees & Vines ®
The cover crop phacelia, shown here planted between rows of table grapes at a farm in Parlier, yields benefits including enhanced soil health, fewer inputs, weed suppression, greater water retention and habitat for beneficial insects.
In praise of cover crops: Farmers tout their benefits ByDennis Pollock
as mulch. The CDFA program provides financial incentives to California farmers and ranchers to implement conservationmanagementpractices that sequester carbon, reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases and improve soil health. Cardoza recently shifted fromdoing crops on every other row to doing themon every single row. “We noticed how extremely effective the cover crop is at suppressing weeds,” he said. “The fact that there is a cover crop in every rowmeans that we’re not disking every other row, dramaticallyminimizing our tillage. “Cover cropping is the tool I would never take out of my toolbox,” he added. His plantings include nitrogen fixers, he said, “my nitrogen budget for the year.” He doesn’t apply nitrogen in any other form. There’s also daikon radish, grass and other plantings. When done harvesting in some vineyards, he can flood irrigate and plant cover crops. With drip irrigation only, he waits for the first heavy rainstorm, then tills lightly and uses a planter. Cardoza said thick taproots “make large pores that open up the soil.” He said he wants living plants on as much of the ground as possible and for as long as possible.
Tocover cropor not tocover crop. That’s adecisionbasedonweighing advantages and costs. It’s aparticularly challengingquestionconsideringwhat thecostsmaybe in theSan JoaquinValley, where rain is often sparse. Farmers recently discussed thewater dynamics of the valley as they debated the use of perennial cover croppings for grapes and almonds. StevenCardozawithCardozaRanches inFresnoCounty saidhe remains a truebeliever in cover cropping. Cardoza farms organic raisins in Easton. Hewas 12 years oldwhen his father, Dwayne Cardoza, chairman of the Raisin Bargaining Association, first planted a cover crop. Cardoza now praises the progressiveness of his father. He said he wants to be able to farm for decades, and he said he believes cover cropping will afford him the chance to do that. He said it makes his land more resilient and less dependent on inputs in future years. Cardoza left the family farm for a time for college and a sales job. He later returned to farming. He took to experimentingwith cover cropping, reduced tillage composting and using drones andmoisture probes. TheCaliforniaDepartment of FoodandAgriculturehealthy soils programisnowhelp- ing Cardoza conduct research on cover cropping, including compost application as well
See COVER, Page 8
August 25, 2021 Ag Alert 7
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