Mar 20, 2026
“Mechanical management strategies improve corn production in organically managed living mulch systems” with Ben Brockmueller.
Organic farming is a rich and rewarding challenge for farmers, but without the use of herbicides and other conventional methods, weed suppression can be a problem. Cover crops functioning as living mulches can be one way to overcome this challenge, but what works in one crop may not necessarily work in another. In this episode, Ben joins me to discuss cover crop management in corn as a means of weed suppression.
Tune in to learn:
· What a living mulch is
· What challenges farmers face moving organic practices between soybean and corn
· Which methods most effectively suppress cover crops without killing them
· What can help close the yield gap between living mulch and conventional systems
If you would like more information about this topic, this episode’s paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.70100
This paper is always freely available.
Contact us at podcast@sciencesocieties.org or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe. If you’d like to see old episodes or sign up for our newsletter, you can do so here: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/.
If you would like to reach out to Ben, you can
find him here:
brockmueller@wisc.edu
Resources
Transcripts: https://www.rev.com/app/transcript/NjliYWVlZDc0ODM3N2UwN2RjZGNkYzY0WmYzWkNjeHRBTUxx/o/VEMwNzk4NjQ3MDgx
Organic Grain Resources and Information Network (OGRAIN): https://ograin.cals.wisc.edu/
OGRAIN YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ograin-organicgrainresourc9263
Sustainable Cropping systems Lab at Cornell University: https://blogs.cornell.edu/scslab/
Field, Lab, Earth is Copyrighted by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.