Erin and Wayne Harris of Kootenay Meadows Farm, Creston, BC, take us along as they experiment with crimping a fall rye cover crop to reseed a field to an alfalfa-sainfoin-legume-grass forage blend.
What is crimping? Why two seeders trained together? Erin and Wayne walk us through the reasons they are trying this new way to establish forage, and ways they hope to improve the system.
This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Part 2 — due out early 2021 — will join Erin to look at establishment of the young plants and discuss successes and failures.
Produced by Andrew Bennett of the Kootenay and Boundary Farm Advisors and Living Lands Agroecology.
Watch the video here:
Contents00:00 Intro00:13 Erin Harris: Why and How00:31 Establish Fall Rye00:59 Crimped Mulch Benefits01:44 Dryland Trials02:29 Why Two Seeders?03:06 Crimper Front vs Rear?03:30 Extra Corner Crimping03:54 Last Year’s Lessons04:24 Crimp Hard (but don’t cut)04:53 Diverse Forage Seed05:27 Seed Drill — Set the Depth06:32 Seed Drill — Set the Rate07:17 The Lodging Problem08:08 Brad Welds on a Rake08:42 Brad Built the Crimper09:01 Measuring Biomass09:40 Rye Too Thick?10:03 Rake is Ready!10:21 Trying the Rake
