article: corn farmer, polyculture, cover crops...

I like that this article seems geared to the layperson and the conventional farmer considering alternatives: One Weird Trick to Fix Farms Forever

The author makes these ideas seem so common-sensical, and so easy. Oh, this saves money? Oh, he grows successfully even in a drought? Maybe I should try these techniques...and maybe we're changing the world, one Midwestern farmer at a time.

Thanks for posting this! It's more than just cover crops that makes this guy's work cool, though. He is singing the praises of polyculture in a very effective way. I'm impressed that he gave up on tilling in 1971.

"Our cover crops work together like a community—you have several people helping instead of one, and if one slows down, the others kind of pick it up," he says. "We're trying to mimic Mother Nature." Cover crops have helped Brandt slash his use of synthetic fertilizers and herbicides. Half of his corn and soy crop is flourishing without any of either; the other half has gotten much lower applications of those pricey additives than what crop consultants around here recommend.

OK, one more quote to lure folks in (although we need the word polyculture in the thread title, methinks):

Inside the warehouse, where 50-pound bags of cover-crop seeds line one wall, three dozen NRCS managers and agents, from as far away as Maine and Hawaii, are gathered along tables facing a projection screen. Brandt takes his place in front of the crowd. Presenting slides of fields flush with a combination of cover crops including hairy vetch, rye, and radishes, he becomes animated. We listen raptly and nod approvingly. It feels like a revival meeting.

"We want diversity," Brandt thunders. "We want colonization!"—that is, to plant the cover in such a way that little to no ground remains exposed. While the cash crop brings in money and feeds people, he tells the agents, the off-season cover crops feed the soil and the hidden universe of microbes within it, doing much of the work done by chemicals on conventional farms. And the more diverse the mix of cover crops, the better the whole system works. Brandt points to the heavy, mechanically operated door at the back of the warehouse, and then motions to us in the crowd. "If we decide to lift that big door out there, we could do it," he says. "If I try, it's going to smash me."

Julia Winter wrote:we need the word polyculture in the thread title

Ta-dah!

Thanks, Leila! I do think it's important for this guy's work to become more well known.