Using Soil Moisture Sensors and Cover Crops to Better Manage Soil Moisture Availability for Cotton and Other Row Crops in Northwest Florida

Unless you can afford irrigation, there are not a lot of options left to manage soil moisture under dryland production. A lot of benefits of cover cropping take years to become apparent, but improved soil moisture is not one of them. Keeping the ground mulched during periods of drought during summer production reduces the evapo- part of the evapotranspiration equation, and results in increased soil moisture compared to non-covered ground. We've deployed soil moisture sensors around northwest Florida for multiple years, where producers killed part of their cover crop so we could have side-by-side comparisons of soil moisture and subsequent crop yield with and without cover cropping. Extension activities in the area have demonstrated improved soil moisture status and yield when a persistent cover crop remains on the soil surface during cotton and peanut production. These data are being used to advocate for statewide cost share for cover cropping in Florida, where proposals are currently being developed for $75/acre cost share for cover cropped land. If you think irrigation is too expensive, you might try cover crops.