As a harvested non-food cover crop, Nuseed Carinata has the same soil benefits as well known cover crops, but it also provides a contract opportunity for growers.
Uniquely positioned, Nuseed Carinata is an independently certified sustainable, non-food contracted cover crop grown between your main crop rotations. It offers the traditional cover crop soil health benefits as well as a harvested product that is a certified sustainable lower carbon oil feedstock to help replace fossil fuels and reduce emissions.
“Carinata is a crop with a high level of biomass,” says De Broughton a Florida Agronomist, owner of 6 Gen Ag Services, and Field Agent for Nuseed Carinata. “Which, after harvest, not only returns nutrients to the soil even in a low or no-till system, but it also leaves an improved residue layer to help the next crop in the rotation with better moisture and more access to nutrients.”
She adds that Nuseed Carinata gives growers a cash cover crop option that can improve even sandy, compacted soil. With rising input costs, especially fertilizer, accessing this higher nutrient soil can have a big economic benefit, over time.
“Carinata is low input, hardy in tough conditions like heat or drought and it has so many soil benefits,” she explains.
The benefits of cover crops increase over time. Some key benefits include:
• Improving soil organic matter and tilth
• Root structures can open soil to improve moisture and nutrient movement
• Supports low to no-tillage practices
• Sequestering carbon in the soil
• Dense foliage helps control weeds, erosion, carbon and moisture loss
A proper crop rotation and utilizing cover crops are an investment in the next planted crop and in the ongoing efforts to your farm’s improved soil health and sustainability.
