The Three Ryans’ growers were impressed with the substantial time and cost savings of the strip till method, combined with observable improvements in soil health. The cover crop + strip till combination makes the transition from cover crop to broccoli much more manageable and helps lock in the benefits from cover crops.
The demo trial allowed the Three Ryans to work through the practical challenges of replacing their usual fallow and conventional cultivation, with a cover crop + strip till combo. After the demonstration trial, they have transitioned to growing all their vegetables using cover cropping + strip till.
“The benefits of cover cropping and strip till, after we solved the initial transplanting problems, will be great for our farm. We intend to keep using the method in the future and will experiment with different types of cover crops, when they are sown and the timing between stopping cover crop growth and the transplanting of the vegetable crop using the strip till method,” said Jake.
Video
Peter Clifton, regional landcare co-ordinator has created the following video on the case study with Jake Ryan about strip tillage in Manjimup, WA. Click on the image above to view the video.
