b'Feeling the Pain of High Input Costs? Cover Crops Could be the AnswerPROFIT IS DERIVEDfrom the excess of income over expenses. To increase profit, one would either increase gross income or decrease gross expenses. In todays environment with high commodity prices, high input levels followed. The question is, how do we cash in on high commodity prices and reduce input costs?Fertilizer is one of the largest expenses on most farms, especially nitrogen. Australian soil ecologist Dr. Christine Jones reports there is approximately 440 MT of nitrogen over each square meter of Earth. KEVIN ELMYBy utilizing legumes with proper inoculants in both Elmy is founder ofmonoculture and polycrop situations, we provide the Cover Crops Canada.opportunity to fix atmospheric nitrogen and create His book Coverplant available nitrogen.Cropping in WesternPolycropping or intercropping is the practice of Canada is availablegrowing two or more cash crops together. By growing through Friesen Press,a legume with other cash crops, we help reduce the Amazon, and digitallyamount of nitrogen that is required to be purchased. through Apple Books,Utilizing species that are mycorrhizally friendly and Kindle, and Googlerequire lower amounts of nitrogen in the intercrop situ-Play. For more info onation may provide all the required nitrogen for the mix.Cover Crops CanadaPhosphate is the other must have in fertilizer visit covercrops.ca. application. Again, utilizing natures intelligence andto have a continuously living root of a plant in theusing intercropping can reduce the need for phos- vegetative stage. Plants in the vegetative stage will phate fertilizer. Nature has through centuries of evolu- release up to 80% of the carbon they capture through tion developed a beautiful system of making nutrientsphotosynthesis as root exudates. These root exudates available. will feed the soil microbiology which then reacts to the One of the keys to proper nutrient cycling is mycor- plants nutrient requirements.rhizal fungi, especially for non-mobile nutrients likeOne of the spinoffs is the vegetative plants will also phosphate. Having mycorrhizal plants from differenthelp suppress weeds. Weeds are ecologically pioneering functional plant groups, namely grass, legumes andplants, meaning they thrive with excess nutrients. The broadleaf plants, helps the the soil maximize microbesvegetative plant will help tie up nutrients, preventing that increases the soil-available phosphate. them from building up in forms the weeds can use.Instead of relying on in-crop fungicides, compostThere are some cost-effective ways to help your teas can replace fungicide applications. By increasingbottom line by using cover crops and intercropping. the amount of good biology on the leaves and stems,Building and supporting soil biology is the answer to you will place biological material on the plants thatmany of todays agricultural issues, especially building will help suppress disease-causing organisms. Theseup of mycorrhizae fungi. Our soils are dominated by fungicides clean the leaf by removing a large amountbacteria which creates a system that is dependent on of materials that can lead to future infections. By inputs.creating a healthy immune system in the plant, youBudgets need to reflect net dollars per acre over a help the disease levels to stay under control. rotation, not just individual years. This will create a sus-The way to keep soil biology alive and functioning istainable future, environmentally and economically.SW56/ SEEDWORLD.COMJANUARY 2022'