Inquiring minds want to know. If you no-till and begin using cover crops to improve soil health, how long can you expect to see improvements? Will soil health eventually level off and no longer improve?

Eileen Kladivko and Shalamar Armstrong, Purdue University agronomists, hear those questions often.

“You should start seeing benefits and changes in soil properties after the second or third year in a no-till plus cover crops system if you manage it successfully,” Kladivko says. “You may not see benefits the first year in all cases.”

COVER CROPS WORK: Researchers confirm what farmers claim — cover crops like this oats and radish mix are soil-builders. (Photo courtesy of NRCS)

The benefits will come if you stay with the system, she insists. Kladivko and Armstrong continue studying the effects and impact of cover crops on various soil properties in research trials. Some of the work is supported by the Indiana Corn Marketing Council. The council allocates funds collected through corn checkoff dollars to various uses, including supporting practical research to help answer questions on farmers’ minds.

The real question is, once you do start seeing tangible improvement in soil properties, how long can you expect that improvement to continue?

“Some have been in the system for 10 years or so and say soil health continues to improve,” Kladivko says. Predicting how long benefits will continue is difficult when few people have experience in this modern era with no-till and cover crops going back more than a decade or so.

Armstrong’s take on the question may surprise you. “I researched the question in the literature earlier this year, and I actually found one study which addressed this question,” he says. “The goal was to determine how long one could expect benefits to continue increasing from cover crops.

EXTENDED BENEFITS: Shalamar Armstrong (left) and Eileen Kladivko discuss cover crop benefits. Armstrong holds no-till soil, while Kladivko holds soil from a no-till field with cover crops.

“This study used computer modeling based on current information about various cover crops and what’s been reported about soil health improvement. The study concluded that soil health should continue improving for 155 years. Then the benefits would finally level off.”

Needless to say, 155 years is a long time, he notes!