Soil Management

Managing Cover Crops Profitably, 3rd Edition

Managing Cover Crops Profitably explores how and why cover crops work and provides all the information needed to build cover crops into any farming operation.

Rangeland Management Strategies

Features innovative SARE-funded research on creating and sustaining a healthy range.

Reduced Tillage and Cover Cropping Systems for Organic Vegetable Production

This information sheet captures research by Virginia Tech and the Virginia Association for Biological Farming to develop cover crop-based, reduced-tillage systems for organic vegetable production.

High Tunnels

This manual on using high tunnels or hoop houses for season extension includes case studies, a supplier list and chapters on marketing, site selection, construction and types, and soil, pest and environmental management.

Cover Cropping: On-Farm, Solar-Powered Soil Building

This information sheet gives an overview of how to use cover crops to maintain good levels of nutrients and organic matter in the soil.

Cover Crops for All Seasons

This Virginia Association for Biological Farming information sheet provides research-based information on a cover crop “toolbox” from which growers can select cover crops most suited to their regions and production systems.

Manage Insects on Your Farm

While every farming system is unique, the principles of ecological pest management apply universally. Manage Insects on Your Farm highlights ecological strategies that improve your farm’s natural defenses and encourage beneficial insects to attack your worst pests.

Cultural Practices for Root-Knot and Root-Lesion Nematode Suppression in Vegetable Crop Rotations

This publication discusses the use of non-host crops, sorghum sudangrass and castor bean grown as cover crops, RKN-resistant crops, and the application of poultry litter (PL) and PL compost to manage RKN and root-lesion nematode.

In-House Composting in High-Rise, Caged Layer Facilities

This fact sheet describes research on composting manure inside of the buildings housing laying hens. Research showed that the addition of a carbon source coupled with frequent aeration of compost in a layer house produced temperatures high enough to inhibit fly reproduction in the material, and odor problems are diminished.

Diversifying Cropping Systems

This bulletin describes some of the many agronomic crop alternatives to use in rotations, with plentiful examples of on-farm successes.