Refining Cowl Crop Administration Beneath Drought: Constructing on 12 months One
Written by Mary Hathaway, OFRF’s Analysis & Schooling Program Supervisor, and Anthony Reyes, FLT Program participant
This on-farm trial at Oxbow Farm & Conservation Heart take a look at whether or not planting cowl crops sooner than the farm’s customary timing can enhance stand institution, biomass manufacturing, and nutrient content material below drought situations. Outcomes from this examine will assist natural farmers adapt their cowl crop administration methods to an more and more variable local weather.
Supply: Washington Soil Well being Initiative
Anthony Reyes, Director of Agriculture at Oxbow Farm & Conservation Heart.
Oxbow Farm & Conservation Heart is a nonprofit farm nestled within the floodplains of the Snoqualmie Valley in Washington State. Anthony Reyes, the farm’s Director of Agriculture, oversees 81 acres of licensed natural land, the place he experiments with climate-adaptive and resilient agricultural practices alongside his staff. Anthony’s work is pushed by a dedication to reconciling human meals wants with ecosystem well being, integrating sustainable agriculture, forest administration, ecological restoration, and training into the farm’s mission.
A key a part of Anthony’s crop administration technique is strategically fallowing fields annually and planting them in cowl crops. This observe helps defend the watershed, construct soil vitamins, and handle weeds, pests, and illnesses, whereas conserving the land productive and wholesome for future seasons.
Not Simply What Cowl Crop to Use, However When
Oxbow Farm has lengthy grappled with the problem of choosing and managing cowl crops that may carry out reliably below the Pacific Northwest’s more and more variable local weather, significantly the dry summers and early-season drought situations which have turn out to be extra frequent lately. The farm usually crops cowl crops in early June, a time when some early-season rainfall can nonetheless be anticipated, although little to no precipitation follows till September. In 2025, nevertheless, drought situations set in unusually early, starting in April, and considerably impacted cowl crop efficiency throughout the area.
Of their first yr with OFRF’s Farmer-Led Trials Program, Anthony and his staff investigated whether or not seeding fee (planting at the usual advisable fee versus 25% above it) might enhance biomass manufacturing and nutrient content material in three cowl crop varieties: German Foxtail Millet, Pearl Millet, and Sudex. Within the trial, German Foxtail Millet and Sudex had been the highest-yielding varieties below drought stress, whereas Pearl Millet struggled. Sudex confirmed essentially the most vigor and tillering. Importantly, the upper seeding fee supplied no yield benefit and really diluted nitrogen focus, pointing to the usual seeding fee because the less expensive selection below these situations.
Learn Oxbow Farm & Conservation Heart’s 2025 FLT Last Report “Farmer-Led Trials: Influence of Seeding Charge on Cowl Crop Efficiency.”
Whereas the 2025 trial answered necessary questions on species efficiency and seeding fee, it additionally opened a brand new line of inquiry: if drought is a persistent and worsening actuality, might adjusting when the quilt crop is planted, fairly than how densely, assist enhance institution and biomass manufacturing? Anthony acknowledged that an earlier planting window may enable cowl crops to make the most of residual soil moisture earlier than situations dry out totally, and got down to take a look at this speculation in a second yr of the Farmer-Led Trials Program.
