Cover crops to boost soil health, add cool-season forage production and provide other benefits will be the focus of a daily field demonstration at this year’s Empire Farm Days from Aug. 6-8 in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

USDA-NRCS Northeast soil health specialist Paul Salon will be joined by representatives of King's AgriSeeds and Seedway for the daily tour of side-by-side cover crop plots each day from 1 to 2 p.m.

Salon, Rod Porter of King's AgriSeeds and Adam Robertson of Seedway will discuss crop timing, seeding rates, termination methods, and benefits of different monocultures and mixtures.

“This year, King's AgriSeeds is featuring our diverse cover crop mixes including TerraLife brand professional cover crop mixes designed to precede specific crops with specific soil benefits in mind for the crop following the cover crop,” Porter says. “Benefits of the mixtures include diverse rooting structures, alleviating compaction, greater amounts of various root exudates for enhanced microbial activity, mobilizing and supplying nutrients for subsequent crops, erosion control, and suppressing weeds.”

“In a year where there are many acres that have not been planted to row crops, there are plenty of opportunities to plant cover crops and provide a benefit to your operation and bottom line,” Robertson says. “Every product has a different end use and benefit. Seedway is highlighting cool-season cover crop products that have a fit either for erosion control, soil remediation or as an emergency forage.

"The plots at Empire Farm Days include our standard mix multispecies offerings and single species plots.”

Empire Farm Days show hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 6-7, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 8. Admission is free, parking is $10 per vehicle.

For daily schedules and more information on the entire 300-acre show, see empirefarmdays.com or call 1-877-697-7837.

Source: Empire Farm Days, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.