NEMO | Fetv - 12/4/2023 08:31
I would guess that both soils would grow the same amount of organic matter but the the pasture ground would turn it into usable fertilizer much quicker.
I would think the CRP ground would be very much alive much more so than tillable ground and all the herbicides and insecticides I’m going to research it.
If the CRP wasn't eroded all away it can be way better than the comparable tillable ground due to the years or decades of rest.
But it is not as productive as pasture ground, or at least not in the first 3 to 5 years.
There is just something about the pasture being actively alive. Continuously growing a grass or legume, cows eating it off and it grows again.
CRP might get brush hogged once a year or every two years. It's not actively growing.
Experienced or witnessed this comparison several years in a row. So not a one time situation. Several different tracts coming out of CRP and several different pastures getting farmed.
This would lend to, or support, the desire of cover crops on crop ground. Having something actively growing all the time. Makes the soil more 'alive'.
'Alive' may not be the proper term but that's how I call it. |