Mimicking Nature: One Farmer's Cover Crop History
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- Опубліковано 18 жов 2016
- Dave Brant discusses long-term cover cropping in annual crop systems at Dansville, Pennsylvania, in March 2016 during the Columbia County Conservation District Soil Health Conference. Dave's decades of experience comes to life with anecdotes and reflections on how be has built his soil by using more than 40 cover crops, reducing tillage, and maintaining soil cover all year.
I lived ❤on a farm as a youth . Dude cracked me up when he said he had enough of chasing cattle . He is or was a smart farmer and great speaker . This is the best coverage of the subject that I have seen .
RIP bud....
This is the best video on cover crops on UA-cam.
Never get tired of listening to Dave...
Dave you say you are not a speaker you are a farmer but what you speak has kept me here 128:30. i say you are both and some
Ya know!
He's speaking Farm. Better farming= better family farms.
He had me hooked right away.
Dave, GREAT video. I'm an aspiring farmer, and this is JUST the kind of video I look for. Real world farming wisdom acquired over multiple decades of practice.
Also Dave, ignore the knuckle heads who are criticizing the way you speak. You are a fine speaker and I had no trouble understanding what you were saying. THANK YOU!
U have really got me to waning to to this we're do I start by doing cover crop after I harvest beans
It ain’t much, but it’s honest work. Also, I really enjoyed the video.
Yeah, I was looking for this comment. :-)
Me too. I was like: THIS IS THE GUY! DOES NO ONE RECOGNIZE HIM!
Hello Dave and all who have watched this, I study biodiverse collapse and the agrochemical industry and the chemicals impact on soil health and insects .I have watched all your presentations. Please farmers trust this presentation . Dupont and Bayer dont care about you or your soil or our wildlife. The future is selling food that is high grade and chemically safe. You will get more money fr your produce.
I would love to get Dave over to Ireland. I am looking at adopting your research into creating wildlife bird reserves. Doing green cover in winter and then seeding in February for summer seed for wildlife etc. I will also be sending o all your information to the dept. of agriculture.
Thank you for your bravery and going forward where others were scared.
I like your attitude and perspective on farming. Thanks for sharing.
I am so glad more famers are really starting to do No till and not just doing what has been done for years that has been destroying the soil.
Dave this is excellent stuff. I've been on the edge of my seat for almost an hour and a half. This stuff is ground breaking. :-)
Great work! Thanks for sharing your research!
Awesome video. Thanks for making it!
Thank you for you courage and persistance. And encouragement. Wayne Gilchrest
Inspirational and educational. Listened carefully, took notes, and wish Dave could have kept sharing experiences and knowledge. Thank you...
Good work Dave.
Awesome video! So informative.
Great speaker,thank you for the information.
this is great!
I can tell a guy sharing knowledge on things his is very passionate on as his voice trembles talking about nitrogen nodules LOL I feel the same way and I admire him for passing along this knowledge...I always love gardening since I was a child and when I retire, I would like to grow food to feed the poor and the hungry...
We can't go wrong with doing what nature does, it was here before time and it will be here when we are ALL gone...
Awesome. Love this guy. Am off to buy raddish!
Thanks for a great video!
*drinking game* take a swig ever time you hear the phrase "You know." :)
aaaaaaand I have alcohol poisoning
And I'm drunk 11 minutes in
Shucks
I drink every time Dave speaks about Dave in 3rd person :) That's the only way I can survive
well word to the wise... I tried that and now I'm wondering how I ended up in jail... nekked
The times they are a changing! He’s got a field day, and that is so cool. Farmers are doing new farming practices and they are very excited. Seem so many are inviting the public to come and see what they are doing. Many have an open door policy, saying you are welcome at anytime. If you go without an appointment they may not be able to show you around but you are still welcome to walk around.
These new practices are changing the market just like fracking completely revived the oil business in this country, these new practices are going to be a game changer! The produce grown under these conditions have much more nutrients than produce grown conventionally. Wow, that means the next generation will all be taller, smarter, larger, etc.....!
Dave Brant is my hero
Dr. Elaine Ingham, soil microbiologist, Gabe Brown, Allan Savory, Geoff Lawton, Jerry Brunett... these are among the people I admire most. For large-scale production agriculture, Gabe Brown is the one I admire most. Partly because he never stops learning, from others and from his own observations and experiments on his land.
The guy starts off by saying he's not a good speaker, just a farmer.. then proceeds to absolutely smash it out the park. Amazing speaker. Just read that he's sadly not around anymore.
I'm a suburban gardener but damn, this is interesting!
And the sunhemp state trooper story? Priceless.👍🤕
Sustainable agriculture pales compared to restoration agriculture. Chemical agriculture is too expensive and lacks efficiency. It has diminished resiliency compared to restoration ag and permaculture, too.
That said, this was a good talk, and this is better than some forms of chem ag...
I took a few notes from you, good Sir.
I'm adding buckwheat to my covers.
Very good great result
This is great
Greetings from East Frisia
Permies is also a great site to learn more about different ways we can all help the land and ourselves.
I’m sitting here watching this while the tractor auto steers the planter with grain sorghum through an accidental cover crop field. We have a long history of wheat heavy rotation and feral rye has always been a problem so we have started letting it and volunteer wheat get headed before burn down. It’s not a uniform stand across the field as a cover crop is, but it is a step in the right direction. I have been trying some cover crop blends closer to home where I could have grazing opportunities.
Great Information, You Know
Very informative. I feel that you are growing your plants the best way. I think God has given us ways to use companion plants or use different plants, insects, and organisms synergistically to reduce the use of fertilizer and herbicide. I feel that this is the wisest way for it will protect those who eat the things you grow from getting cancer and allergies. You have been very insightful in the way you have implemented your ideas. Thank you for sharing.
"You know" because you have told us, now we know. Thanks so much. And I was impressed you said Red clay can be black dirt in 5 years. That I'd amazing. Thanks
No it can not. It takes 100 dry ton of organic material to produce 1% organic matter. To get “black dirt” you’d need 30% om. Good luck with that. You can make the top 1 to 2 inches darker with root mass decay. But maybe in 80 years you can’t take your soil from 4% to 7% and that’s huge.
That sounds correct. But I remember one year using a bog disc to hill up the clay dirt in Oct. It was yellow brown. Then I grew peas the next spring. The ground was darker at the end of that crop. That hilled up clay dirt turned into loose dirt.
@@Jns27j do you factor in the carbon content of _soil organisms_ ? The sugars they feed to them ? It is easier to estimate the contribution of the visible part of the cover, but there are also the roots and what they injected in liquid form and that ends up in the cells of the fungi, bacteria, worms and all the other critters. Not to forget that the inside of the worms is like a bioreactors and they also process carbon.
@@Jns27j 45 minutes in and 52 minutes is the data.. 1% organic matter improvement per cover.
@@gerryburde5663 absolutely not. It takes 100 tons of dry organic material to gain 1% of OM.
This is fantastic. Great information and entertaining.
I would love to hear about a Mob Grazing event rotated in on your cover crop to consume half the cover.
Awesome u know!!
I have only heard that term used in southern movies
Besides that.... Great video!
you were mentioned on matt power's permaculture design course
very nice
I'm going to ask a silly question can you sow summer forage seeds and winter seeds together for cover crops?
I did love this.. but, was sad to hear RoundUp. That's not mimicking nature. Loved all the other content though, thank you for making!
everything else seems on point, too. 22" earth worms?! legume roots with nitrogen fixing nodes? 64" cover crop roots?? buckwheat for phosphorous? full of beneficial insects? woo! soil building for sure.
The alternative is tillage which is more destructive to the soil.
Towards the end another experiment with precision planting would be to double plant half rate wheat and split rows
I don't know if that precision is precise enough to do that. Just a thought. Would stop (slow up) early season broadleaves.
i was with him all the way up to 'round-up'
Its because your not a farmer
@@sproket168 that's an unintelligent response. Seriously, everyone but "farmers" know this stuff is horrible and killing your farms. Total fail....
@@benderas6683
I never said round up was good, I was responding to a narrow minded answer.
There's lots of excellent uses for roundup. ( not on crops) as we now know.
But like I said your clearly not a farmer.
@@sproket168 uhhh.... You missed the point. You obviously are a farmer who thinks it is ok to use roundup. And actually I am a farmer. Just not into growing food that is killing people and our planet.
@@benderas6683 ok
Good talk
you know.
Another point, it is my opinion/experience, that the fungicide runoff, also destroys the surounding woodlands fungus. Such as Morel.
165 bu corn with 5,5 inches of rain? I would like to know who it is that can grow that. Thank you for uploading this video
Gabe Brown up in North Dakota mentioned that in a video. The organic matter in his soil holds a year's worth of moisture, taking a lot of risk out of farming in dry ND.
Yes, but I think it is important to remember that Gabe gets 16 inches of rain or snow, and its much colder up there than in Texas, you know high temperatures much of the year must evaporate more water, and also I'm a little skeptical about if the same water infiltration rates can be reached in Texas as in North Dakota.
In 2016 in Ontario, I grew 140bu corn. After planting May 15, it was stinking hot and dry with 1 3/4" rain until the end of August. The great emergence occurred with no timely rain. No till and a 7 species cover crop mulch saved my rear. Mr. Brandt is one of my go to guys, along with Gabe Brown, Dwayne Beck, Dave Johnson and Woody Van Arkell.
Nice Colored Fellow from Africa… wow
which cover crop for pumpkins?
What do you do if you only get rain 3 months a year semi desert country and what do you do to covercrops before planting
My opinion is plant at the begin ing of the rainy season . That may be Dec for you. Dave says roll down the cover crop ( the rye)before it turns to seed. Then you have a mulch to grow your crop for 80 days after that. Dave shows the soybeans example.
how are you mixing warm season and cool season cover crops? and how can i plant summer cover crops in June in South New Jersey and also have them survive in Winter like Rye and clover and oats and Cowpeas?
If I was following correctly, the warm grown in the cool season died at the right time so no seed production was created. in turn green manure was created.
Just do it I think he would tell you and dont give up
@@bosshog4342 - 'Green manure' traditionally was a crop that was turned under. Ideally, cover crops are either mown, or simply crimped and laid down and the cash crop planted into it. Even better than that, they can be grazed and tramples by livestock, instead of machinery. Gabe Brown talks about this in his UA-cam videos.
where is your farm i want to visit it? also any no till farmers in new england area?
NOW I know. ;-)
Great video, my question is how much biological damage does roundup do to organisms in the soil. Aren't you stopping the digestion and release of more nutrition?
Yes
The answers to your question is right in the presentation. Would he be getting the levels on the soil tests if the round up was hurting the biology that bad? Just look at his results instead of hyper fixating on his once a year round up usage. The only alternative is heavy tillage which is worse for your soil.
48:30 I don't get it. How does putting in sunflowers save you having to add zinc? Zinc is an element, the sunflowers can't make it from nothing. Where does the zinc come from?
Plants can pull trace elements from the air and soil and 'fix' them into the soil so that they are usable for other plants that pull other elements, they can also swap using mycelium fungus (the fungus grows in healthy soil that isn't sprayed with pesticide). Sunflowers fix zinc- peas, beans, and other legumes fix nitrogen- buckwheat grasses fix phosphate, ect. ect. Even when the cover crops die over winter, the elements they pull build up in the soil as the plant decomposes- essentially fertilizing the soil for cash crops without chemicals that mess up the water. Sorry if I explained this badly!
@@emh.1178 Well, that doesn't really make sense. There's nitrogen in the air, so yeah you can pull nitrogen out of the air. But there isn't zinc or phosphorus in the air. Those are solids.
@@jbtechcon7434
They are deep down, some plants have deeper root systems than others, like buckwheat, alfalfa, yarrow, comfrey...
@@andresamplonius315 You're saying those plants send down roots so deep they pull zinc out of deeper mineral layers?
I wish i could come!😢
I live in dusty Texas and so wish our farmers would consider implementing your ideas. There are a few who are doing more and more, but I'm afraid the water and soil of West Texas will be depleted before folks are willing to try something new. I don't know how they could have this info and not put it to use...you'd have to be crazy!
Yes, and the opportunity in reducing the severeness of floods by keeping the water on land instead of in flooded streams.
Anyone who makes more profit will have a platform from which others will learn the better ways. Those figures on how topsoil loss costs Texas will be persuasive. A field of mature corn may look green and nice but below it the earth is 80% bare.
@@Gustav4 - Yet techniques that mimic natural ecosystems - including holistic managed grazing, and multi-species cover crops - will replenish springs, streams, rivers, and aquifers. This happens by water slowly moving through the soil underground, and does not create the problems that surface runoff does - topsoil loss, erosion gullies, and flooding.
Gabe Brown is taking the use of cover crops even farther. Check out his talks on UA-cam. Among the differences is his use of livestock to fill the niche left by the once abundant herds of wild game that are now long gone. For the soil life, cattle work as well as bison - so long as they move across the landscape, instead of staying in one place ('set stocking'). Or, worse yet, confined in feedlots or Confined Animal Feeding Operations ('CAFOS'). Gabe uses no synthetics at this point, and no GMO crops, and saves his own seed. ua-cam.com/video/uUmIdq0D6-A/v-deo.html
and ua-cam.com/video/QwoGCDdCzeU/v-deo.html
Holistic planned grazing - greening deserts, restoring soil fertility, restoring the water cycle thereby mitigating both droughts and floods - and eliminating the need for chemical dewormers or fly control on the livestock WHEN DONE PROPERLY. Allan Savory, 'Grasslands, Livestock & Hope': ua-cam.com/video/wHzA9w0b7io/v-deo.html
Ray Archuleta and Allan Savory both have photos in some of their presentations on UA-cam showing the southwest when it was prairie - not desert. The photos show that when and where there was/is more livestock on the land, the land was covered with grasses. If I remember correctly, it was Ray who had photos showing grasses crowding out mesquite and cactus.
When it comes to dryland crop production, Gabe Brown is one of the best. Check out their talks.
@@Jefferdaughter I know everything about that.
How large were the Plots #1-4. 1 acre?, 1 hectare?
Since David Brandt is in the USA, he measures his land in acres.
Where does one go to start learning how to do this? I'm wondering what to plant before/with/after peonies.
Knowledge is a journey, friend. Keep looking and you'll find the anweres you seek
What plant is he holding in the beginning?
Daikon radish
It aint much but its honest work
Very interesting video. He really refers to himself in the 3rd person alot, ya know
I so wish every speaker wd repeat the question.
And may I also suggest Jadam? You have some good practices here, but the herbicide has to go
oh this is the guy Gabe Brown talks about in his book!
I am VERY interested in trying to go to his farm for the day on april 6 as he mentioned. Is there anyway to get more info on this? I managed to find a phone number and address after a bit of searching but nothing that makes sure this is the correct address for him or about the event. Thanks!
Hi. I'll check with some folks and get back to you. I'm wondering since he spoke in March if we was referring to April of this year. But I do know that he does do field days on occasion. I'll try to find out what he has scheduled.
Thanks!
NCATATTRA h
nice ,, thank u,
I wonder how the nitrogen from the peas reaches the radish, because radish does not connect to mychorrizal fungi.
more importantly what was the starch level
11:49 Different Covers For Different Crops
YOU KNOW!
Matrix Bird you both said it, ya know? Reduce farm inputs, and increase... ya know!
Closed captioning please please
Why does the voice keep cutting out?
what happens if u invested with moles can u still use cover crops
What is infested??? My guess would be your gonna want to make that field brown bare dirt for a couple months. With that said I can’t imagine there’s enough moles to hamper a crop. If there is...sorry and good luck.
Moles are digging up the soil for you and eat worms (the good ones too but if you manage your soil well, you should have plenty and can share with the moles. But I guess they chase the earthworms, so the worms work the heavier parts of the soil to get out of the way of the moles). But they also eat slug eggs, and other pests. - voles on the other hands are rodents, and the bane of everyone growing things.
There mounds and tunnels are slightly different.
Mole "infestation" = good
Vole infestation - good luck, you are gonna need it.
Hire a cat, some birds of prey, ... ? snakes
Non è molto ma è un lavoro onesto
what companies sell seeds for cover crops to bigger scale farmers?
Goooooooooogle!
Contact Gabe Brown in Bismark, North Dakota. He can tell you.
Better than Google, and they don't spy on you for profit: Duck Duck Go.
Look up a local seed supply, may have to call a hardware store in a small farming town nearby and ask where you could find bulk seed for farming
How can you "mimic mother nature" by using Round-up Ready seed crop?
I haven’t watched it all but which is round up ready.
Round up is awesome. It breaks down quickly. So for example on our farm we run a corn crop followed with rye cover crop, the next spring we plant soybeans into the rye. We kill the rye and other weeds with round up. We can than come back in later with another dose of roundup mixed with some minor residual herbicides. Once the beans are harvested we plant wheat. We then frost seed our wheat with clover. We harvest the wheat in July. Then we broadcast tillage radishes. By September it looks awesome with the.clover and radishes. The next spring we plant corn directly into it. The clover feeds the corn. The radishes put air in the soil. The beans feed the wheat. Thankfully for roundup, there’s no tillage. No erosion, a lot less fuel, equipment and time spent planting. All the while we are building and protecting the soil nutrients, microbes, insects and organic matter.
What's it mean to "roll" the cover crop?
"Rolling the cover crop" is referring to using a roller crimper to terminate a cover crop. The rolling and crimping action of the blades will transform a field of vetch, rye or other cover crop into a thick, weed suppressing mulch. Crimping must be accomplished at late flowering to kill rye or triticale and to provide enough mulch biomass to suppress weeds. - John Wallace
@@NCATATTRA Thanks John, very informative!
And Roundup is poison. Never, ever say that Farmers are dumb! This guy is cleverer than any of the PhD's that I know and way beyond me. I'd love to be a farmer doing what Dave does but I'm not sure I'm clever enough. Maybe I could manage that with learning by doing.
Hey~ first off, you need.to change your mindset my friend, I can guarantee you are smart enough to farm or even garden or whatever it is you wish. It just takes some knowledge, care and the will to work.
18:39 Mistakes With Covers
Man, Mr. Brandt pwnd #BigAg conventional farming!! 1337
I wonder about his opinion on fall leaves. Leaves and ground cover don't mix. I have an abundance of leaves which I've sheet mulch with for several years. While the soil is moister, I still not getting good infiltration. Nothing growing means nothing is penetrating and breaking the soil. I'm starting to be of a mind to start removing it and use annuals, but then I'm right back to where I was years ago deciding what to do with the leaves.
The trick with using autumn leaves from trees for mulch is that they tend to pack down, and prevent water from infiltrating, and reduce the amount of air getting to the soil surface, too. Shredding the leaves and leaving them fluffy prevents this. You can put a grass-catcher bag on your lawn mower and run over them, or use a shredder machine. Or mix them with other organic matter, like straw, or even finer twigs to help keep the leaves from packing down.
Another option would be to compost the leaves. A piece of wire fence made into a circle contains the leaves, and lets air get in on all side. It is still a good idea to mix in other things, like twigs, shrub clippings, vegetable peels, etc.
Worms baby!
People that make compost might be thrilled to get your leaves - or you set up the compst heaps. Mixing it with some brown raw material that is richer in carbon.
I thought they had it better in 1755, but all in all I guess it checks out
Please Sir give me a call so I can maybe learn what might work for me at 5000 ft elevation and 12-18 in of moisture per yr
You are gonna be subjected more length of growing season with killing frost being at such a high elevation. One problem with cover crops is it slows down the warming of the soil. Your gonna need to get that soil warm quickly to plant as early as possible.
Amazing. I don't understand the resistance to cover crops. Do it for future generations or your own pocket if the first don't motivate you.
Love David but please work on that "place holder word", ya know. 😂
what kind of soybeans are you growing? Are your soybeans GM?
ya know
44:38
I bet his son wishes dad hadn't ripped out all that fencing 25 years ago.
No round up, please, it is making people sick!!!! Everything else is fantastic.
Cutting audio?wheres the meme
38:49 Nitrogen reader
Missed
please don't use "Round up" it is killing all the bee's "You Know"
Not just bees; Round Up is harming countless organisms. It is in the rain... And in our food, and is in human breast milk, and in newborn babies (the young of humans).
it kills the soil structure
I think you mean imidoclprid
I was really liking this until you said you used roundup.
It is better than plowing, and he probably uses it rarely and not on the crops that he sells to you.
What does he mean by roundup ready? Does he use GMO corn from monsanto?
I know it's not on the crops that I buy, because I try to stay with Organic.
Roundup is more environmentally friendly than atrex banvil or paraquat. which don't really degenerate in the soil and winds up in the watertable.
atrizine +paraquat+2-4 D had terrible carry-over. Roundup worked better and we were told no carry-over. "Better living through chemistry". I do agree with you but the weeds remain.
I was thinking for a family to have hundreds of acres of land makes no sense coming from the city. I think families like this should give good chunk of that land back to nature and to let it take care of that land so other species could live also.
Colored 2019 lol.