News

Cover crops a Band-Aid for Earth’s soil

 

A southeast Minnesota farmer likens cover crops to using band-aids.

Ed McNamara of Goodhue County started incorporating cover crops in 2012 when thousands of Minnesota acres were prevent-planted.

He tells Brownfield it recently occurred to him that cover crops are a lot like band-aids, with soil being the skin of the Earth.

“It’s like when your mom put a Band-Aid on a scratch you had.  Basically, the cover crop will accomplish the same thing.  It will give that skin time to heal, provide protection from infections and so on.  And if you take it off at the right time, it should be healed up afterwards underneath it.”

Like band-aids, McNamara says cover crops can uniquely fit the needs of a farmer.

“You have to understand your management and what your soil types are.  How you want to handle it.  What you focus on as far as main objectives.  And then try to find the suite of products and technology that will help achieve that goal.”

Brownfield interviewed McNamara at the Plowville cover crop field day near Dodge Center Tuesday.