Tales from the Field

The photo above depicts the bounty and beauty of a cover crop of turnips and radishes. These delicious taproots are muscular packets of organic matter that will feed the soil microbial life, which will feed fungal life, resulting in improved soil health for a successful establishment of a highly diverse prairie. Not as visible in the photo are oats and rye, the fibrous roots of these grass species distribute organic matter more evenly across the soil profile while improving the soil permeability.   

This cover crop is located near Fulshear, Texas. The pasture was initially non-native Bermudagrass (Cynodon Dactylon) and Bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum), both of which are invasive and provide little wildlife habitat value. The goal of the landowner is to restore the property to a diverse native prairie habitat. WHF used multiple management practices, including cover crop application. The use of cover crops is designed to build organic matter back into the soil while overall regenerating the health of the soil. The recent rainfall has allowed the cover crops to establish the necessary dominance over the invasive plant species. Cattle will be used to terminate the cover crops using an adaptive grazing strategy before seeding the area with a native prairie mix.