How it works
Different crops are planted on a field in a planned sequence. This improves soil health and provides crop benefits over the length of the rotation. Examples of this practice might entail: a broccoli-winter wheat-sweet corn rotation; a wheat-fallow-alfalfa-potato rotation; or other combinations depending on a variety of factors.
Purpose/Benefit
- Reduces fertilizer needs; alfalfa and other legumes replace nitrogen removed by wheat and other grain crops
- Reduces pesticide costs and field operations by naturally breaking the cycles of weeds, insects and disease
- Protects water quality by preventing excess nutrients or chemicals from entering water supplies
- Reduces soil erosion by wind and water by adding crops like hay and small grains
- Increases soil organic matter
- Adds diversity to an operation
- Provides food and cover for wildlife