At the 2024 National Strip-Tillage Conference in Madison, Wis., I had a chance to catch up with Gary Zimmer, also known as the father of biological farming, who was attending the conference in hopes of learning more about how strip-till can fit into his biological farming practices. Here’s what he had to say about the role that cover crops can play in a strip-till system.  

   “You can get a really good crop by just playing the chemistry game and putting on this nutrient and that nutrient and feed it this and feed it that. But you see, if we look at where cover crops fit in, I’m trying to get a diversity of biology. I have to have that by diversity of feeds. The more diversity of biology, every one of those people that are talking about fungicides and pesticides — you’re constantly having to protect the plant where I would rather have the biology protect it by having diversity, and I want to get my nutrients in that carbon biological cycle. They can’t leach, they can’t erode, and I can constantly feed that crop. I think if we truly want to have healthy soils that are high yielding without tons and tons of inputs, I think we really need to put a much bigger focus on biology and cover crops and plant diversity are really a big part of soil health.”  

   “I think we’re limited here in the upper Midwest because by the time we get our corn and beans planted in the fall, it’s too late to have much — if you’re just going to grow those two crops, rye becomes one of the obvious things. Interseeding hasn’t worked for everybody out here, and so rye — you can plant it in November and still have it grow. And the management of it is always the issue, and I realize it’s only one crop, but ideally we would spend a lot more time and research on developing cover crops for a specific need. We do have some like mustard to control nematodes, and we grow a lot of clover and legumes to get our nitrogen sources out here, and I want deep rooted plants, but the only way we have an opportunity to grow those cocktail mixes is to be able to have a third crop in your rotation like wheat and then in August you can plant that cocktail mix now, but with corn and beans, you’re really limited.”  

 Zimmer says he’d like to see farmers be more intentional with cover crops and ask themselves what they are trying to achieve with a specific cover crop in their system. That’s all for this week’s cover crop connection.

Watch the full version of this episode of Conservation Ag Update.