Seeking regionally specific guidelines for cover crops through cotton-farmer-led best-practice and soil security

This project acknowledges that cover crop offerings are diverse, as are the requirements of growers across Australia’s cotton regions, and that the true benefits cover crops offer will come through years of integrated practice.  Monitoring Natural Capital will quantify the effects cover crops have on soil water holding capacity, infiltration and retention; soil carbon and its dynamic behaviour in relation to soil microbial abundance, diversity and activity; and how these properties interrelate with structure through the soil profile. The program will consider seasonal and management-initiated variations in parameters through continuous and targeted discrete measurement. The regionally specific performance outcomes will be led by grower interest. Community consultation will be the first step, enabling the means to measure will follow, providing contextually relevant data will equip farmers with the digitally enabled tools to determine how their management compares. Regionally based performance and goals backed up by relevant data can then be communicated to farmer advisors and commercial providers. Through soil security and digital soil change mapping we will identify 10-15 contextually similar properties at different stages of cover crop integration. These property groups will span Australian Cotton’s major regions. Farmers interested in participating will be equipped with the tools to monitor the performance of their systems in terms of Natural Capital: water, soil, biodiversity, and crop yields and quality. By considering similar properties at different stages of integration, this project will effectively extend the investigation’s period of “time under management”. Through farmer engagement, the number of systems monitored can be increased and with it the types of management considered. Resulting in an investigation with expanded scope and long-term effects that extend substantially beyond what is traditionally achieved by research programs of comparable budget.