Tillage Options For Red Clover and Other Cover Crops

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With the increasing push to use more cover crops in Ontario, particularly red clover in winter wheat, producers are looking for tillage options for managing the cover crop stand.

The tillage demonstration at Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show last week focused on conservation tillage options for red clover, as outlined by independent agronomist Pat Lynch in the video below.

Related: Wheat School — Why Red Clover is a No-Brainer

“One of the problems with red clover is the tillage afterwards,” he explains, noting there are tillage options for managing red clover while avoiding erosion and pulling out the moldboard plow.

“We want farmers to plant red clover, but we don’t want them to moldboard plow and lose some of the benefits. This tillage demonstration shows how you can handle the red clover without going back to the moldboard plow,” says Lynch.

There are many factors – no one-size-fits-all – for determining which tillage unit is best suited for a farmer, he adds.

“Different farmers, knowing their soil, want different things from their conservation tillage,” he says. “Figure out what you want on your farm, what you think will work best for your soil, rotation and other pieces of equipment.”

Pat Lynch discusses tillage options for red clover with Bern Tobin at COFS 14:

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