Different ideas for destroying catch crops
The cultivation of catch crops is becoming more and more popular year by year. Their popularity is supported not only by their beneficial effect on soil properties, but also recently by financial incentives in the form of subsidies from the eco-scheme. Lush vegetation in the catch crop requires destruction at the right time to properly prepare the site for the cultivation of the next crop. There are many ideas for eliminating catch crops. Mulching or mowing the vegetation and then mixing the thus fragmented biomass with the soil gives very good effects. Very often, farmers combine the destruction of the catch crop with initial cultivation of the land, e.g. by disking.
A cheap and easy way to destroy a catch crop seems to be a chemical method using non-selective herbicides with the active substance glyphosate. This is a method commonly used in the West, e.g. in France or the United States, especially in no-till farming systems. Applying glyphosate to a catch crop is there not only a way to conveniently destroy vegetation, but also to create a protective mulch layer on the soil surface from the dead biomass. In some Western systems, the successive plant is sown directly into the growing catch crop, which is destroyed chemically immediately after sowing.
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When eliminating the catch crop, pay attention to the regulations
When considering possible options for eliminating a catch crop, however, the regulations should be taken into account first. Remember that the labels of plant protection products are our "oracle" on the issue of their legal use. The labels of non-selective herbicides based on glyphosate do not contain information about the possibility of using them to eliminate catch crop vegetation. The question therefore arises: can a catch crop be legally destroyed using glyphosate?
Our editorial team decided to contact the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with a question and request for an interpretation of the regulations in this area. Below we quote the response, sent by the Press Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development:
We kindly inform you that the labels of registered plant protection products do not indicate the possibility of using glyphosate-based products to destroy catch crop vegetation. Therefore, it is not possible to eliminate catch crops by using non-selective herbicides based on glyphosate.
For farmers growing catch crops, this is therefore a clear exclusion of the chemical method of destroying the catch crop. Let us also add that within the practice of "winter catch crops and undersown crops" in the eco-scheme "carbon farming (…)" in the area with catch crop, there is a ban on the use of all plant protection products until February 15, regardless of the active substance.
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