Cover crops help to increase the productivity of future row crops by enhancing the physical, chemical, and biological qualities of the soil. The goal of this essay is to analyze current advancements in cover crop practice in terms of potential benefits and drawbacks for annual crop yield and long-term soil quality. A cover crop's desirable characteristics include its ability to establish quickly under less-than-ideal conditions, provide adequate dry matter or soil cover, fix atmospheric nitrogen (N), establish a deep root system to facilitate nutrient uptake from lower soil depths, and produce organic matter with a low carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio. Cover crops can be leguminous or non-leguminous. Leguminous cover crops supply a significant quantity of biologically fixed nitrogen to the primary crop, as well as a low C/N ratio that facilitates decomposition. Legume cover crops can also assist increase the concentration of plant nutrients in the soil's surface layers by absorbing low accessible nutrients in the soil profile. Because some non-leguminous cover crops have a higher N scavenging capability than leguminous crops, and because the growth of these scavenging grass cover crops is often limited by N deficit, planting grass/legume mixes appears to be the ideal method for maximizing cover crop advantages.
Cover Crops, Leguminous, Soil erosion, Biodiversity
