An organic tillage production farm will use a cover crop of small leaf white clover under a cereal crop (organic oats) to see if this has a positive impact on soil health, and compare this with the traditional practice of sowing the crop into bare soil, which has been ploughed. The cover crop will be left in situ after harvesting the cereal crop, so the soil will remain covered, and the clover cover crop will continue to photosynthesis and fix nitrogen during August and September when previously only stubble would have remained. The cover crop will continue in place for the sowing of the following crop (a winter crop if conditions allow, otherwise a spring crop), rather than under-sowing another crop at the same time as sowing the cereal.
The objective is to see the effect the clover cover crop will have on soil biology and the nitrogen available to the following crop, and on other soil health parameters. Additionally, the incidence of weeds and disease in the cereal crop, the yield, grain quality and financial return to the farmer will also be monitored. The outcomes could help cereal farmers reduce ploughing, therefore reducing soil carbon loss, and having positive impacts on soil biology and maintaining overall soil health, whilst at the same time reducing costs in machinery and boosting