You don’t have many unis doing cover crop research. Well, we do. Penn State, where I come from, Penn State University is one of the leaders. If you have some time on the internet, Google “Penn State University cover crops” you’ll be there for a few hours. They’re studying synergies of mixes, and they have some of these complex spider graphs they have. I never knew what a spider graph was before but it’s kind of cool where they evaluate mixtures. Some of that stuff is a little bit too techy for me, but I’m kind of interested in it, and they’re doing a lot of things. But 20 years ago when I talked to Penn State, “Ah, Steve, you’re just, ah whatever.” I got no help. Zero help. But you know what the difference is? New blood. People retire; new blood. All of a sudden now, Penn State is well known for its cover crop research, and they’re doing pretty good. I could probably name 12 faculties that are very pro cover crop. And the biggest one is, one of the biggest is, most weed scientists in the U.S. are.
Most weed scientists in the U.S. are anti-cover crops. They just are. But ours at Penn State is pro cover crop. He’s a rare breed. He’s a weed scientist but pro cover crop. That’s something to be noted. Sorry, I’m just bragging my own uni.
This is a clip from “Walk the Talk” with Steve Groff: Cover Cropping filming available for Farming Secrets Members.