Cover crop mixes sown on one side of an 8m long, 4m wide, 1.2m deep pit, will give visitors to this year’s Cereals event a unique perspective of the plants soil structuring benefits.

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“Healthy, resilient soils are an integral aspect of any arable business,” says Event Director, Jon Day.  “To provide growers and agronomists with a unique perspective – in this case, the ability to go ‘underground’ – is what Cereals is all about.”

The Soil Pit will demonstrate four cover crop mixes, each specifically selected for strong root growth:

• Tillage Radish,
• Radish & Spring Oat Mix,
• Spring Oats, Radish, Vetch & Phacelia Mix
• Crimson Cover, Black Medick & Vetch Mix.

For comparison there will be Spring and Winter Rye, Winter Wheat and Spring Barley on the other side of the pit, together with a sub-soiler.

Cover crops are one of a range of tools that can help to achieve effective soil management. NIAB TAG’s current research is looking at how cover crops and machinery can work well together, and Rothamstead will be discussing how this type of soil is formed and how the biological and physical aspects interact. There will be NIAB TAG and Rothamsted staff in the pit at all times to answer questions, as well as supporting staff around the site.

Ron Stobart, Head of Farming Systems at NIAB TAG shares, “We are hoping that arable farmers will take this opportunity to consider the impact that soil has on their productivity and ask lots of questions. We would encourage farmers to think about best practice, to consider the benefits cover crops could bring to their farms and to to develop what they have seen to suit their own farm situations.” 

Steve McGrath, Head of Sustainable Soils and Grassland Systems Department at Rothamsted Research explained: “Our research on the effects of roots and of earthworms on soil structure and how important the existence of soil channels or pores is for the efficient development of roots will be discussed, and methods for assessing soil resistance and structure will be shown.”

Penny Hirsch, from the AgroEcology Department, Rothamsted Research, says her group will present posters on the soil food web and the microbial communities associated with plants and soil, including a collaborative project in the BBSRC-NERC Soil Security Programme, “Roots of Decline”, examining the soil and root-associated causes of yield decline in oilseed rape.

An overview of the cover crop mixes:

Tillage Radish    

Tillage Radish is a fast growing brassica. It can grow rapidly in the autumn producing deep roots that help to open and potentially rectify structural issues. 

Tillage Radish helps 'mop up' nitrogen and can help to improve soil structure.

Radish and Spring Oat Mix

A mix of a deep rooting brassica (radish) and a vigorous cereal (oats) is used to provide ground cover and soil improvement.  The components have different, and complementary above ground and below ground characteristics. 

This is one of the mixes that is in the EFA Guidelines and is a common entry mix for those looking to get into cover cropping. 

Spring Oats, Radish, Vetch and Phacelia mix        

A wide ranging mix, that in addition to the oats and radish, introduces a legume, vetch. Vetch is vigorous and will fix nitrogen at certain times of the year.

Phacelia doesn’t harbour club root and is nematode neutral which means it can be used in rotations where this would be an issue.  It attracts and feeds a wide range of pollinators too.

Crimson Clover, Black Medick and Vetch mix

The mix of three legumes is based on an approach developed originally in a Defra, LINK project.  These nitrogen fixing legumes have been found to complement each other well.

A similar mix is being used in cover cropping studies within the NIAB TAG led New Farming Systems project; in this study the rotational use of the legume mix as a cover crop has resulted in rotational improvements in yield and margins.

Tickets for the 2016 Cereals Event, to be held at Chrishall Grange, Duxford, Cambridgeshire on the 15thand 16thJune are on sale now at www.cerealsevent.co.uk.