ABOVE: Dan Shaefer of the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association speaks to Vermilion County Farm Bureau members during a Wednesday, February 29th workshop on cover crops.
With the new growing season coming soon, the Vermilion County Farm Bureau hosted members at a workshop concerning cover crops on Thursday (Feb 29th) morning. But much more than cover crops came up. One topic, brought up by Dan Schaefer of the Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Association; was that the Environmental Protection Agency is now paying closer attention to the enforcement of the Endangered Species Act.
Schaefer says this is in response to substantial lawsuits brought about by environmental groups. One thing going on is that pesticide packages will gradually have labels where farmers are not supposed to use that product unless they have a certain amount of total credits for doing things that can help protect endangered plants and animals. Schaefer says these labels on pesticides will not all show up at once, but after each individual pesticide is re-registered with the EPA. One major question, of course, is how strictly will this be policed? Schaefer says that remains to be seen.
AUDIO: Don’t know, not yet. Everything’s still being…..the lawsuits (are) going on. The EPA’s going to have, as they look at new relabeling of everything; they’re going to have to figure out what they’re going to do. I don’t now where this is going to go. I’m just saying, we need to be aware that they have not enforced the Endangered Species Act over the years. They’ve been sued now, and they’re going to be forced to abide by the Endangered Species (Act).
As Vermilion County farmland awaits the transition from winter to spring, farmers may discover more pesticides having “credit point labels” on them.
One of the things farmers can earn credits for is by planting cover crops between growing seasons; which can lead to advantages such as preventing soil erosion and nutrient run off. Following Thursday’s workshop, Schaefer told Neuhoff Media that cover crop usage should be a mainstream thing, but farmers need to understand that it’s worth the effort. Not to mention a learning curve that’s needed such as when to plant the cover crops, how soon before planting the cash crop to remove them, and what works best with a farmer’s individual soil.
AUDIO: As with any voluntary practice we’re doing, we’ve go to have buy in from the grower to implement these practices. We can guarantee you that we can reduce tile nitrates with a cover crop; and we can do it actually every other year. We can reach our nutrient loss reduction, but we’ve got to have implementation and adoption of these practices by the growers.
Common cover crops include cereal rye and barley, along with vegetables such as radishes and turnips.
