Extended Crop Rotation

Improve soil health while decreasing insect and disease pressure.

Get Creative with Crop Cycles

Crop rotation is one of the oldest and most popular conservation practices in agriculture. Extended crop rotation takes the idea of growing different crops in the same fields over a series of growing seasons a step further.

In extended crop rotation, after growing a row crop of corn or soybeans, you follow with at least two years of different crops such as grasses, legumes or small grains.
Extending and diversifying your crop rotation to include a small grain helps improve soil health while decreasing insect and disease pressure. Certain forage legumes such as alfalfa also help your fields generate biological soil nitrogen.

Healthier fields = reduced soil erosion = less need for nitrates and phosphorus. That means you might be able to cut fertilizer costs and reduce the amount of excess nutrients winding up in waterways.

Farmer Spotlight

Building Markets for Small Grain Rotations

Cascade farmer, Eric Miller, started a malting business to be able to sell small grains he grew in his extended rotations. He saw soil health benefits from adding these crops to the landscape, and an opportunity to bring local ingredients to Iowa.

How Does Extended Crop Rotation Improve Water Quality?

By extending the amount of time your soil is covered with actively growing plants, reducing soil erosion and keeping nutrients in fields – not waterways.