The perception and use of cover crops within the island of Ireland
Date
2021-01-26
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Publisher
Wiley
Abstract
The integration of cover crops within arable rotations is becoming increasingly popular
due to their widely acknowledged benefits. Subsidisation of cover cropping is available
to eligible farmers in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) but not to Northern Ireland (NI)
farmers. There has been little research focus on ROI and NI growers' perceptions about
the husbandry associated with cover crops and the benefits of growing them. Surveys
to gauge farmer use and perception of cover crops were conducted at two arable conferences,
with 55 respondents in NI and 77 in ROI (132 respondents in total). Growers
used cover crops mainly to improve and maintain soil structure in an overall bid to
enhance soil health in ROI, whereas in NI it was predominantly for forage. The impact
of subsidies provided by Ireland and its stipulated policy influences species choice, and
farmers were more likely to plant cover crops after later harvested commercial crops,
for example, September. Compared to growers in NI, they were found predominantly
to plant after crops harvested in August. In ROI, 63% of respondents receiving subsidies
would continue to use cover crops if this monetary incentive ceased.
Description
Publication history: Accepted - 14 December 2020; Published - 26 January 2021.
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Keywords
cover crops, environment, soil, survey
Citation
Cottney, P., Williams, P. N., White, E. and Black, L. (2021) ‘The perception and use of cover crops within the island of Ireland’, Annals of Applied Biology. doi: 10.1111/aab.12678.