Name: Eric Mousel Occupation: Regional Beef Educator, University of Minnesota Location: Minnesota, USA Email:
emmousel@umn.edu
A big part of Eric Mousel’s role is working with beef and dairy farmers to improve management in ways that makes their businesses more viable and more successful. As of late, a big part of that has been done through incorporating cover crops in their systems. Interest has grown since the US government started to incentivise farmers for growing cover crops. “Cover crops are a great fit on livestock farms, and they provide both immediate and long-term returns,” says Mousel. Primarily, they provide a forage opportunity, either harvested or grazed, at a time of the year where usable forage, particularly for grazing, is on the decline. In Minnesota, cover crops provide opportunities to mitigate soil moisture challenges. In a really wet year, when farmers struggle to get their cash crops in they’ll instead plant cover crops for forage, but also to soak up that extra moisture. That has become, in the last 10 years, a very critical component of the whole cover crop equation. “In both spring and fall when we have these really wet periods, we’re seeing a lot more optimisation of land area by using these cover crops where they used to
just sit fallow,” Mousel says.” If you couldn’t get in the field, you just didn’t do anything.” More often, he’s seeing farmers move to a fall-planted winter annual cover crop because the overall success rate has been so high. While cover crops offer solutions in terms of feed, he recognises their soil health benefits too. “The consequences of leaving the soil exposed all winter over a 20-year period, that’s a tremendous amount of erosion and soil organic matter loss,” says Mousel. “We need to protect our soil. It’s not a thing to take for granted.”
Eric’s tips for success: • Keep it simple the first time around; a first time failure can discourage a farmer for life.
• Experiment with more species as you get more comfortable • Make sure you have a good support system that includes an experienced agronomist
SUSTAINABILITY STARTS WITH
BALANCED BREEDING Balance is essential to a sustainable pig production. Therefor Danish Genetics’ starting point
for a
sustainable system is balancing the traits in the breeding program. This secures the biggest outcome for the least resources. Danish Genetics’ superior on farm practices secures the selection and upholds the high Danish standards for welfare and biosecurity that ensures a healthy and thereby strong and sustainable business.
Danish Pig Genetics P/S · 7100 Vejle · Denmark ·
www.danishgenetics.dk ▶ SUSTAINABILITY AND WELFARE | OCTOBER 2020 9 Y
O
PHOTO: ERIC MOUSEL
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