USDA Wants Farmers to Increase Double-Cropping
via The Food Institute
·
Posted September 21, 2022 7:58 pm
The fact that the USDA is encouraging this practice can be taken as a good thing beyond just food security, commodity markets and profit for the farmers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is encouraging farmers to grow two crops on one piece of land, a practice known as double-cropping, to bolster global food supplies, which are threatened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The practice isn’t new. In parts of the South and southern Midwest, farmers have been planting winter wheat in the fall, following harvest of their summer crop, usually soybeans. The wheat is then harvested in late spring, in time for spring planting.
This article is interesting in that many of the farmers we follow that are small grain growers are already double-cropping. Wheat, barley, oats, and rye are all considered small grains, among others, and it is the classification that the various ancient, heritage, heirloom and landrace grains we use fall into.
To take it one step further, double-cropping is a step in the direction of regenerative farming practices that alternates crops on a farmer's land into order to regenerate nutrients in the soil. One crop may use up certain nutrients during one season, another crop in the same location can put it back. An oversimplification to be sure, but you get the idea.
