CALIFORNIA
Field Crops A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ®
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Mustard and bell beans grow in a cover crop blend in a rice field near Arbuckle in Colusa County. Rice farmer Kim Gallagher is partnering with researchers to study soil contributions of cover crops.
Cover cropping on rice fields remains a challenge By Vicky Boyd
It includes a variety trial with plots of oats, bell beans, purple and woolypod vetch, turnips, yellow mustard, oats, rye and balansa clover, as well as one with a blend of vetch, bell beans, field peas and rye to see which ones perform the best. In addition, UCCE farm advisors will collect data on cover crops’ contributions to soil carbon and nitrogen, and other soil health benefits. It is funded by a $100,000 California Department of Food and Agriculture Healthy Soils Program grant. UCCE farm advisors and Gallagher discussed the demonstration project and cover crops during a recent field day near Arbuckle. Whitney Brim-DeForest, a rice advisor for Yuba and Sutter counties, said they were interested in looking at cover crops in rice because of a dearth of data about potential feasibility and soil health contributions. Rice also is different from most crops because it’s grown in an aquatic environment lacking oxygen. As a result, the anaerobic con- ditions may affect soil microbe composition and how they interact with cover crops. Brim-DeForest said they used a four-wheeler and spinner-spreader to plant the cover crop demonstrations in Gallagher’s field in late October. They lightly harrowed in the seed.
Kim Gallagher, who farms row crops and almonds near Arbuckle, is an admitted fan of cover crops because of the soil health and other benefits they provide. Coming off successes in her other crops, she wanted to see if she could obtain similar advantages in her rice fields. After nearly four years trying cover crops in a rice field under the U.S. Department of Agriculture Environmental Quality Incentive Program, or EQIP, Gallagher said the outlook isn’t that “rosy.” “I’ve learned a lot about what you shouldn’t do, but I haven’t had a lot of success (with rice),” she said. “I do believe in regenerative agriculture, where you have roots in the ground year-round. I think it really works in other commodities, but I’m not sold in rice. There are people who do this and do it really well.” In addition to the 230-acre EQIP field east of Arbuckle, Gallagher began hosting a University of California Cooperative Extension cover crop demonstration in a nearby field in late 2022. The three-year project will examine cover crops’ contributions to rice soils in three locations: in Gallagher’s field, at the Rice Experiment Station near Biggs and in a Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta field.
See COVER, Page 8
May 17, 2023 Ag Alert 7
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