In October 2023 the second twice-yearly webinar on alternative weed control gave a deep insight into cover crops use for vineyards, field vegetables, arable crops and fruit trees.
Speakers from research communities, and consulting and technical institutes from different countries across Europe, provided technical information on cover crop implementation challenges and requirements. Management issues throughout the year, impact on weed reduction, and additional benefits on the soil fertility, biodiversity, and climate change were covered.
The webinar was held by Oper8 French partner: French Wine and Vine Institute IFV and held in English.
okay let’s go so hello everyone thanks for joining um operates webinar uh operate is a European project on alternative weight control so I will just start with a brief summary about this project uh so the steps so far um uh we have been working and operate for a year now and we had a survey uh work and a bibliography work on Solutions alternative solutions for wi control we worked on NES gaps barriers uh to preventing from the adoption of alternative we control Solutions we have also been building uh National networks within the seven countries we are working uh gathered in the project uh we had some meetings with stakeholders from this topic and we also organized several demo events uh in the countries in the past years other events will happen in 2024 and 2025 and now we are entering assessment phase of solutions uh assessing the solutions will go will be done through uh several workshops at different scale European and National scales and we will also work on cost benefit analysis so uh today’s webinar um you can see the program on this slide uh so each presentation will be about 10 minutes um for the presentation after each one you will have uh two three minutes for questions so uh part to participants you will see you cannot speak but you can write your questions in the questions window you have on your screen on the right side probably so you can type in your question and we will read out uh read loud the question and ask for an answer to the present to the speaker and you just have to know that in the end after the webinar uh you will receive an email from the platform asking for a short uh survey satisfaction survey and you can also give a suggestions for future topics you would like to see addressed so I will uh leave the screen now so eleonor that’s your turn just to check you can see that okay perfect okay good morning everybody thank you for joining my name is Ellie dear and I’m an IPM consultant at Adas in the UK and this morning I want to share some insightful results that we’ve gathered as part of the operate project earlier this year we conducted an online survey followed by Focus Group workshops which aim to gain further insight into the use of alternative or reduced herbicide applications for weed control we’ve spoken with Farmers advisers re researchers and Industry and policy Representatives with an aim to establish the needs gaps and barriers for alternative weed control in the seven countries that are involved in operate this was structured mostly As closed questions in an online survey with some open-ended questions and then more open discussion in focus groups so that we could get further insight into the results of the survey which is what I’m going to show you this morning so firstly I’m just going to talk through the type of participants that completed our survey we had a total of 625 completed surveys and thank you if you were one of those um participants could be categorized as Farmers or as non-farmers based on their responses and out of the 625 responses we had 58% farmers and 42% non-farmers when we then look at the farm characteristics of farmers involved in the stakeholder engagement there was a range of different cropping sectors represented from small to very large scale production and man managed very differently as well um more than 50% of farmers stated that cereals or oil seeds were their predominant crop type and 50% of farmers were managed conventionally I will say that the definitions of these management approaches were not provided in the survey so they are self defining here so having a look at the results the number one most popular method of weed control currently used from our engagement across all of the countries was the use of chemical herbicides um nearly 80% of farmers selected this option and bearing in mind that 17% of the Farms were organic this shows a high Reliance of chemical inputs outside of those or Organic Farms um the second most popular weed control approach was mechanical followed by cultural control cultivations Mowing and hand weeding and then less than 10% of farmers selected the remaining weed control options that you can see here if we look at the use of cover crops specifically um the this approach varied across the regions involved but the lowest percentage of farmers use the weed control approach from our results was in the UK and the highest was in Sweden when we um discussed the barriers for alternative Rec control in our survey and focus groups it was clear that there are several important reasons why there’s not greater uptake of these alternative approaches and these re reasons did differ with region and this table is showing which barriers were a main concern for stakeholders within each country that’s involved in operate and the most prevalent barrier across all of the regions was perceived cost associated with these alternative methods um farmers and non-farmer participants also thought that a lack of access to the equipment and a lack of access to information was a huge barrier in most countries um as well as concerns relating to the efficacy of these alternative approaches if we come back to the cover crops example when we look at the percentage of farmers that were interested in using cover crops but have not yet done so um the numbers represent a higher percentage of farmers looking at this alternative approach but there are several concerns which prevented cover crops from being used by these interested participants and from our discussions for some Farmers cover crop were seen as complicated expensive timec consuming and may have low efficacy so in order to address these concerns and increase the use of cover crops and other alternative approaches our stakeholders identified key areas which need to be improved these included demonstration events Trials of alternative approaches recommendations from other farmers and consult Consultants um as well as subsidies for environmentally friendly farming and grants for trials and the purchasing of equipment and again the um perceived importance of each of these suggested Solutions differed across the um the regions involved so from these results you can see it can be difficult to make make informed decisions on which management approaches are suitable for you and if you can’t get access to the information required to make those actions So within the operate project we’re increasing access to equipment through on Farm demonstrations and facilitating discussions between farmers on different methods that they’ve used we’re also increasing access to information on alternative weed control methods by creating online training resources fact sheets videos podcasts and webinars um and with that being said I’d like to hand over to Professor Daniel antii who’s gonna who’s from the University of Pisa and he’s going to talk about strategies of cover crops in arable and field vegetable crops thank you thank you Ellie can you can you hear me and can you see the slide yes yeah perect perfect good morning everyone and uh thanks for joining uh my talk will be about the agronomic strategies for cover crop introduction into edable and field vegetable cropping systems first I’d like to start from the characteristics of these uh cropping systems basically in arable crops we have um rarely more than one main crop per season that will be in the winter in dry areas or in the in the spring in more uh cold uh climates this is not um always like this but is uh very frequent situation that open the path to uh summer follow or winter follow and I will show you soon uh which could be the major treats linked to these uh bur so conditions uh in addition uh aable cropping systems are uh frequently characterized by very simplified crop uh crop rotation with uh a couple of main crops uh leading to soil fertility loss and weed specialization as well as past and pathogen problems and finally arable crops are normally considered low Revenue crop this means that farmers uh often seek to uh reduce uh production cost uh in field vegetable we have a different situations with many crops usually grown uh simultaneously uh in different parts of the the farm but in in small plots with a very intensive management due to the short duration of the crop cycles and this reduces at Max the uh the the width of the windows uh open for Farmers to prepare the seat and also to uh Implement some uh uh cultural method for weed control the consequencies of these uh characteristics of the cropping systems are shown in this slide mostly aable crops in Winter follow we have high risk of soil erosion nitrate leeching uh water logging and weed infestation due to the absence of uh plant cover and in the summer follow the major problem especially in Mediterranean areas is huge loss of Sol organic carbon due to increased respiration and loss of water due to increased evaporation from soil in field vegetable the uh frequent passes of Machinery to manage the Wheats and uh um to establish new crops uh increase the risk of soil compaction so loss of soil structure stability and quality with cons sequences both for the soil fertility as well as for the the crops uh the short crop Cycles uh make it hard to control the weeds and increases normally the so seed bank of weed species and reduces at Max the the time available for intermediary crops like cover crops cover crops are certainly uh powerful tools to tackle these FRS and these challenges and uh the the first criteria we need to follow to select the cover crop fames is the ecosystem services that is targeted according to the local pedoclimatic conditions and normally we have grass species mostly linked to biomass production with control and carbon input uh ecosystem services various legumes are mostly linked to nutrient cycling we should also consider the opportunity to combine different ecosystem Services by growing cover cropping mixtures increasing the resilience uh of the the cover crops against climate stressors for instance um but we should also deal with increased complexity in also in the point from the point of view of management of the cover crops basically we can follow two different uh options in introducing cover crops in such cropping systems the first uh the first one is uh introducing cover crops in between two major crops as an intermediary uh crop and in tillage based cropping system normally cover crops are managed as green manure so they are incorporated into the soil at a certain moment of the crop cycle and uh uh for that aim we should uh select cover crops having uh this kind of traes like a huge biomass production by the termination date the other option in conservation uh agriculture systems is mching that can be performed either as a living MCH so keeping growing the cover crops together with the main crop uh and in this case uh we should select a cover crop with a creepy AIT uh with a very low competition ability with the uh the crops and uh stress tolerance uh the other option is to kill the cover crop uh and to ke to keep the residues of the cover crops on top of the soil as a dead Mar to protect the soil from erosion and we infestation in this case it is very relevant to grow uh very tall cover crops with long stems and huge biomass uh at uh also early uh growing stages here I just provide some examples from our uh research experience uh with uh this kind of intermediary cover crops in this picture you can see every bch one of the most uh widespread uh green manures is a leum providing huge of nitrogen we test it both in edable crops and in field vegetables also in combination with the plastic mulch with a synergistic effect on uh the crop residue mineralization rate and good level of yields in the Tomato crops that you see in this picture another option to uh manage the a VCH uh is to provide a dead MCH also in edable cropping systems and uh legum based that MCH is essential especially for uh grass main crops like grain soron that you see in this in this picture in field vegetables the use of dead mulch is constrained by limited we control uh ability along the uh the crop Farrow uh for sure this kind of management is uh to be coupled with no teal or strip teal as Christian will show you in his presentation later uh the use of annual cover crops uh as living MCH in uh uh in field vegetables uh can be an option but especially in for winter vegetables uh characterized by low level of weed infestation and especially represented by not so competitive with specimens uh the other option is to grow in uh cover crops as intercropped uh cover crop uh growing together with the the main crop at the same moment and in this case we have two different uh path the first one is to grow cover crop as temporary uh intercropping uh system uh in which the cover crop at a certain moment of its cycle is green manure into the soil to provide uh facilitation and services to the main crop in this case you see a leum that was a green manure in between the rows of durum wheat to provide extra nitrogen and wheat control the other case is uh to grow um cover crop as permanent uh impermanent intercropping system uh where several um several uh main crops like field vegetables can be grown on the same cover crop longlasting over years in temporary intercropping system another option is to establish what we call relay intercropping system where no termination of the cover crop occur but simply there’s a a difference in the crop cycle of the main crop and the cover crop this means that the cover crop like in this case we have red clover under s in durun wheat the cover crop can survive uh the main crop Harvest and we stay longer on the field the soil surface providing additional uh soil cover during the summer and during also the next uh fall providing also other services and uh biomass for uh green Manu uh here you can see uh the picture of the same system just before uh the wheat Harvest um in the another example of this kind of strategy can be the use of annual self- receding uh legumes in combination with field vegetables like in this this picture we are testing several species of self receding but also perennial uh leing march to establish a continuous soil cover on top of the soil where we can um do direct transplanting or direct SE sewing of the field vegetables uh um contemporary sewing or transplanting can be uh challenge because uh uh we can have early competition leading to huge crop heal reduction uh for temporary intercropping systems like dur wheat and grain legumes uh we should uh timely do the green manuvering of the C crop in order to enhance nutrient availability we had um successful experience in increasing a lot the grain yield and also the grain protein content of wheat in such systems and when we want to establish permanent uh cover cropping and intercropping system in fed vegetables is essential to start in advance with leaving uh enough time to the cover crops to establish well then we can manage the cover crop in order to reduce its height its height and is compet competitive ability against the main crop before establishing the field vegetables uh in in this uh and this discover crop in this picture you can see cabbage established within a permanent living March of white clover uh yeah I’m closing my presentation here I just uh report in green some potential benefits of the different uh strategies and the different management options of cover crops in aable and field vegetables and I think we can uh keep this the slide open for the discussion and I will be glad to uh answer some questions thanks Daniel so for now there are no questions so we can wait a bit more otherwise just feel free to write your questions and we can read it a bit later if you’re still thinking about it okay okay there is one question so uh Daniel what species work best for uh in crop green manure sorry can you repeat the question what yes what species work the best uh for crop green manur for green manures uh as I said we we had uh for legumes we had a very uh good results with the use of aret uh that is our best uh legum cover crops in at least in Mediterranean country can fix up to uh 200 or even 300 kilos of nitrogen and he has a uh it owns a a very uh huge biomass productivity uh and also is we suppressive because of allelopathy mixed with uh competition for resources but I guess also because of the uh climate conditions the best options uh when we grow green manur is to establish establish mixtures uh between legum cover crops and grass species at least in order to balance the carbon nitrogen ratio and uh to have more adaptability against uh climate stressors like uh water bombs or uh extensive drought uh period we by summarizing I can say that mixtures of uh legum cover crops such as a VCH and grass species such as rice for instance or barlay uh can be uh when one of the best options to tackle with uh climate change and having stable results when using the covered crops as green manure in both aable and field vegetable cropping systems thank you Danielle there is another question before handing over to ilas travos I think so is canavalia anoris or canavalia brailes or mukuna pan used in Europe uh I don’t think so uh I I never test these tropical uh species uh we tested some years ago CIA CIA yunia that is a promising uh summer crop because in Mediterranean areas uh we we are looking for also options to uh um to grow cover crops also in summertime and so we need to uh to find out dve resistant cover crop especially legumes uh the only summer legum I heard about and I tested also in my previous experiments uh was uh uh via uh so the cow pce uh that that are quite good as well and croal Aran sometime can give good results but I never test the other the other species like Muna and as far as I know there are no uh extensive experience on these species uh in in Europe yeah thanks a lot Daniel so I think we can start now elas travous presentation thank you thank you thank you camil uh good morning to to everyone I’m Le tros from agricultural University atham uh I will talk you about the role of uh of cover crops uh diversity and comparity sorry uh on weed management and ecosystem services in perennial crops so we will change a bit the topic of uh my good colleague as Daniel described before uh I think Danel said everything talked about everything here uh a few things to to add or to summarize uh cover crops very well known have gained popularity lately especially mixtures and uh here in this table you can note the different identities and the different characteristics that uh several functional groups of plant uh give uh so we have cereals with high biomass production rapid growth um some other things regarding um soil ecosystem Services erosion control for instance uh some of them with the exception of O are tolerant to low temperatures on the other hand we have legumes uh where we can see various uh effects an excellent nitrogen fixation but relatively h of low ER with the competitive ability I would say and we also have braik members crucifers with a high biomask uh production um light interception for the for the weeds uh and some good effects on on the soil as well in general we could say here that okay for annual crops and like the ones that Danielle mentioned before the cover crops are often uh established before the establishment of the main crop or they can uh remain they can coexist for uh an interval for a period with the main crop however in the perennials in Vineyards in trees uh we do not have the privilege uh to establish the cover crop before the crop I mean the main crop is already there and therefore cover props are usually established in the fall between the the rows uh in order to exploit winter rainfalls no need of irrigation for them and uh of course it is crucial to terminate them before the reproductive main crop growth stages meaning to avoid the competition with the main crop some um some uh issues here regarding the the functional complementarity I I was talking about before uh it’s a relatively new trend to try to combine species in in mixtures uh in order to increase the productivity of them and also suppress the weights some of them offer higher growth rate as I said before some of them they enrich the soil with nitrogen uh other have a more intense effect against weeds and all of them could operate could work uh as a as a as a result of of synergy I would say uh here you can see some examples of species of some of the pictures are from our experiments in our field Triant in Greece in perennial crops you can see that uh we have monocultures of cover crops or companion crops or say as you as you like since we talk about perennials um and we have some mixtures as well o with vets mustard with vets and three species mixtures so uh we want to see how how it goes as living Mals or as a dead Mals because there is effect uh after the termination as well so uh our research objectives of a of a trial as I said that we established for two years in gree uh was to in Citrus ards to compare the ability of cover crop monocultures and mixtures to suppress winter weights to suppress summer weights and to to evaluate any uh ecosystem services and uh with a special focus on on soil organic carbon sequestration the P the trial was established in pus in southern Greece some experimental details I I don’t think I have to stay here the dominant species uh was wild o ailis Cru g b Berard grass medicago lupulina and meralis Ana but we had also some other uh species our experimental design uh was the one that you see in the table on the on the left so we had an untreated control and the chemical control as well and uh we had the cover crops either in uh in monocultures or in uh in mixtures of two or three and you can see the syn quantities uh as well our results uh revealed some interesting things uh first of all regarding the uh the we biomass so the the potential we control that this uh cover crop could could give this cover crop crops could give uh you can see that there are some differences uh in the biomass of the several crops but I would say that the mixture uh of uh of the three species and some and the mixtures of the of the two species had the the uh the highest wind control uh both in Wier weed species against Wier weed and summer weeds this is uh an indicative picture of the of the cover crops and the during the growing period and we had some I would say some cause effect relationships so uh we had uh when the cover crop biomass was increasing uh the the result was that wi we biomass and summer we biomas was declined so this relationship was something uh that we have observed uh in both years in uh in all our field trials uh as cover crop the highest the cover crop biomass the lowest uh the the we biomass uh this is an indic ative picture of the an indicative photo of the of the mixture o vets you can see Master vets in the center and Toad vets and mustard uh in the right and here you can see that uh um regarding the the richness of the mixtures regarding the diversity of the of the cover crop mixtures uh in general I would say that um cover crop biomass seem to to increase and uh witer weight biomass and summer we biomass that you can see here in general in the specific mixture and this is something that I want to highlight in the specific mixtures uh we had the an increase of cover crop biomass as the diversity of the mixer was higher but this is not something that um uh it is valid for any case and any mixture so uh I would say that that it is a species specific issue we also examined as I said before the the effect of the residues the dead mouths in the in the weeds and regarding the organic carb the carbon sequestration as you can see uh and in agreement with the with the observations made by professor andit before uh as you can see where we in the cases that we in the mixers we had uh a grass pieces inside or a monoculture of the grass species the carbon sequestration uh was uh was higher in general to to summarize if you can see if you see the literature uh you can see that cover crop mixtures are used um uh lately for in order to evaluate the we suppression so we have several combinations tested under different soil and climatic conditions and uh in in the majority of the cases you can see a significant effect against WS uh we could say here that the mixture should compose of species that belong to different functional groups characterized by complementarity H however there uh in some cases monocultures of uh especially of uh productive cover crops uh in some cases they suppress uh better weeds than the mixtur other ecosystem Services we know very well Danel said many things before about soil Health about water about pollination about biodiversity and natural enemies there are some B very good papers out there to take a look and see what cover crops do especially in in perennial crops uh they are very important but there are some crucial points points to to take into account uh and for carbon sration as I said before uh there are some studies already conducted with with various results and uh a a positive effect in general of the carbon sequestration due to the presence of of cover crops however the result as I said before is a species and taxon specific I would say in conclusion I would I would say here that the establishment of cover crop in perennial cropping systems offers a valuable uh non-chemical solution for we management and uh please note that this the cover crops can be uh combined very well with other weed management methods chemical or non-chemical farmers in Greece already H try and um evaluate such uh mixed systems as as we say uh the results are optimal when diverse cover crop mixtures are used that are composed of species belonging to different groups as we said but for sure further research is need needed to evaluate the role of cover crop diversity on weed management and ecosystem services in perennial crops uh under longterm field uh experiments and varable conditions thank you for your attention thank you very much elas we have a few questions here for you um did the mixture of the cover crops stop the competitive weed seating seed can you can you repeat Emma yeah did the mixture of the cover crop stop the competitive seed weed seating seed yes uh I would say yes and um and an interesting thing here is that uh in uh in some other experiments also in perennial crops uh we saw that this cover crop this cover crop and especially the the mixtures can be very effective against some special groups of weeds like herbicide resistant weeds and also some invasive species okay we saw a very good effect on against herbicide resistant Kiza for example or herbicide resistant Lum inside the perennial crop so yes but we cannot generalize the the effects and say okay in every case case we we have an adequate weight control we see that pces uh one by one this is a case specific uh phenomenon I would say perfect thank you we have another question here for you what was the difference in cost between chemical control and different cover crop mixtures yes this is a very uh a hot issue uh if you were you were asking this question some years ago I would tell you that the the difference was huge but lately as you know chemical um we we can’t besides uh are getting more expensive as well yes can hear we couldn’t hear you very well but it’s better now thank you okay I was saying that some years ago some years ago the difference was huge but now the differences are not so uh uh so big so large okay thank you um another question uh how important was the method and timing of cover crop termination on the subsequent weed control yes uh here is um this is a challenge this is a challenge due to the competition that cover crops can cause to the main crop uh because when we are talking about Vine yards when we are talking about only bards or other crops especially other arid or semiarid conditions there you have the risk of the of being competitive to the crop to the main crop however uh the timing seems to play a role uh the lay as uh the latest you terminate the the latest you keep the effect on the weeds but you have to find the the optimum uh uh point the optimum time to terminate and this Optimum time is not uh similar is not common for all fields and all thank you elas I have another question here for you uh do you have experience of sewing cover crops annual and perennial in perennial in perenial systems just like rainfed I can’t read the question Cy can you I can read it question yeah I have it so do you have experience of sewing cover crops both annual or perennial in perennial systems like rainfed Olive grow growes where you are just managing spontaneous weeds by mowing do the swn species survive for more than one year or does it disappear after the first season okay if I understood well uh um the question is about all vort and if we have such experience yes we have such experience and this is the uh this is the issue here this is the purpose here not to uh to make the farmer irrigate the cover crops the the the farmer uh is not very enthusiastic to have something inside the O Bard and pay attention and inputs for for for cover crops so we are talking about uh definitely rainfed conditions and to tell you the truth H even some summer cover crops some early showing summer cover crops in some cases they may work as well I mean uh to to have under rant conditions without any irrigations or with only one or two irrigations to be able to give uh an adequate wind control so we also test in our field trials some summer cover crops as well like the one mentioned before in the presentation uh and the question to to to to Danielle okay thank youas we have two more questions and then we will switch to L presentation um so it was uh both for Daniel and elas um it’s a question about soil health so INF field vegetable crops which is the best system for soil biodiversity and for the provision of ecosystem Services meaning which practice of whe control is better for soil health so I I can start answering to this question yeah um there’s no uh win-win solution um I I mean uh for every context every uh ped climate condition so we we should uh actually uh uh yeah know pretty well which are the environmental uh limitations and opport unities but generally speaking uh the less the disturbance to the soil the the higher the soil he that’s uh the let’s say uh the the general the general rule so uh we we are uh focusing much more of our efforts in research activities together with Christian and other other colleagues uh to test these uh conservation systems also applicable in organic farming conditions where we establish these longlasting living Mulch and mixtures of different uh living MCH species in order to reduce as much as possible the so disturbance and this increase for sure the soy microbial activity and uh increase the nutrient cycling nitrogen but also phosphorus that is linked for instance to uh micral fungi that are uh in symbiotic relationship with many cover crops but this uh should be manageable from uh yeah Pro practical points of view so I mean we should uh realize a good management of the cover crop otherwise we will have a disservice a disservice that is actually uh a loss of yield uh of the the main crop due to water and uh uh other kind of competition so I guess uh uh the the the the most Diversified and the less Disturbed uh system like leaving MCH mixture in perennial um intercropping uh will be the best option but we need to uh to design an effective uh system like this thanks daneli so last question uh is the cutting of cover crops at 25% of floration rule of s valid here do you know this rule so 25% of floration rule of th valid here for cutting cover crop cutting uh means mowing or uh crashing because uh what what we know from the literature is uh when you manage a cover crop uh as a green Manu the normally the highest the biomass the better so uh reaching at least beginning of flowering is is the general rule if the the management considers also the option instead the option of managing the cover crop as a dead match then you you should not cut but maybe roll the by a roller crimper the um the cover crop and then what we know from literature is that at least 70% of flowering in Forbes and uh uh ER early Dove uh ripening for grass species would be the best to avoid any regrowth of the cover crop thank you Daniel so I think it’s time to switch to Vineyards now with L uh we will address uh all questions in the end of all the presentation in case it’s needed okay good morning is it okay with the presentation we have your notes you just click on uh the first one yeah good that’s good okay good morning everybody I am L and I’m working on um on uh sustainable soil management at the I today’s the subject of my talk is about um agronomic strategies for the introduction of cover crops into wine growing systems uh cover crops in viticulture are a huge subject uh there are not only a solution for alternative weight control as we we have have seen um cover crops um provide uh uh econic econ ecosystem services that benefit wine growing soils by increasing soil organic matter reducing runoff and erosion processes and improving the biological quality and the biodiversity of the soil but they are not systematic systematically adopt uh because as ilas said in perennial row crops they are interrupt uh so um they are grown simultaneously with the main crop and there is a related risk of competition for soy resources so the issue is to find the balance uh between services and disservices uh while considering local conditions and objectives of CP production uh cover crops are part of complex soil management strategies uh with a range of management options that provide levere prodction it is possible possible to operate on grass coverage grass coverage intensity it means the P percentage of uh of surface under grass cover uh over the year on the field by determining spal structure and duration of the cover special structure of the cover refers to crop location in the field uh full surface only rows or inter rows or one interrow out of two or more um the choice of the of the SP of the species uh of the cover is is also a part of the of the farmer strategy and as you can uh see on the on the pictures uh different practices um can be combined specially and temporarily uh on the same plot in French Vineyards uh 64% of plots have already cross cover on all or part of the inter Rose while herbicides are used to control weights under the rose in More than 70% of the vineyard and only 2% of the vineyard has permanent grass cover under the RO so in a context of reducing abide use uh in wine growing systems the major issue is finding alternative solutions for the area under the RO the setting up of a controlled cover crop under the vine row could be one more alternative to Mechanical reading which one is very compelling but uh under Z row grass cover has been studied by ifb since 2005 but given the low rate adoption uh we assume that there are still barriers uh to its adoption uh our various trials enable us to identify the uh interests and barriers of an under Z Ro grass cover uh this practice is particularly interesting because uh it’s flexibility and accessibility compared to Mechanical wieding and because it provides ecosystem services and protection of soils but Technical and social barriers remain such as uh the need for investment in equipment and the lack of seeding equipment the interactions with some operation such as shoot removal or tying up and there is still a problematic of social acceptance uh because of the short time available for the rest of my talk I will focus on the main agronomic barrier uh which is uh the competition for nutrient and water so um total uh permanent grass cover is the least restrictive uh practice in term uh in terms of uh work organization but our agronomic observations uh in various trial all over the year showed that total and permanent grass cover has a strong and negative effect on grap Vine productivity so levels for Action uh must be must be Mobil mobilized to find more acceptable strategies with uh under the roow grass cover so what lels uh can be used to manage competition uh the first level is to manage the percentage of grass cover in the plot uh on this graph uh we can see that the impact of uh the cover crop on gra Vine productivity is directly linked to the percentage of surface under grass cover uh up to 60% uh we can consider that the impact uh of grass cover on yield may be considered uh as acceptable on this uh recent uh in this recent uh trial uh the control strategy uh is chemical reading under the row with uh permanent grass cover uh under the the on the on the interrow and we compared strategies with grass cover under Z row uh where grass cover one inter row out of two uh was destroyed at different dates uh in miday in mid June are uh never destroyed when under the RO grass cover uh is uh was associated with a moderate early weeding on one Intero out of two uh meaning uh in miday uh and uh it corresponds uh in wine Growing System uh at the stage before FL before the floing of the vine yield and vigor were not uh significantly different uh from the control with chemical reading under the RO so this is an example of strategy that could be a transferable solution uh for controlled production objective um the the choice of spontaneous of sound grass cover is another lever to to mobilize spontaneous vegetation is made up of local wids that can be controlled and destroyed uh during the vine cycle and spontaneous vegetation uh can be preferred at it as it embodies a Costless intercrine intercrine option but on the other on on the other hand um choosing sh s species uh can be interesting to reach uh specific services such as uh weak growth rapid establishment or uh the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen by integrating leguminous plant so we let’s focus on this last Point uh in uh this example uh free assimilable nitrogen in must is uh one uh one indicator to to to to give information on Vines uh nitrogen status and in this first example uh we can see that the addition of perennial leguminous plants uh to uh the under zow grass cover uh improved assimilable nitrogen uh compared to the use of um grinus plants alone for example we can see uh the value of nitrogen in the must for sheep vcq alone under the roow and uh when there is an addition of white clover there is uh a rise of almost 20% and uh in the case of dactil alone under the RO and dactil associated with white clover the rise is uh is consequent uh around 50% more uh free assimilable nitrogen in the most uh in this second example the grass cover under Z row uh is made of spontaneous spontaneous um cover spontaneous and the integration of leguminous plant was chied by um by [Music] uh by setting uh green manual uh one ENT row um out of two and so we can see that uh green manuals uh uh improve Pro the assimilable nitrogen contain of the must compar to inter row spontane spontaneous crossover so it’s another solution to integrate um leguminous plant uh in the in the system uh lastly um we also experimented Folia nitrogen um folar nitrogen fertilization as an upsetting practice is on bins with uh total permanent grass cover uh so as this our trial uh from uh 20 2007 uh to 2015 uh showed that uh this practice helped to regulate the reduction in Vigor uh linked to the grass cover under the R so in conclusion uh uh some key points uh cover crops in vulture are part of complex soil management strategies uh they are welld developed on inter rows but uh still scales under the row the barriers are agronomic Technical and social one of the main barrier uh is managing nutrient and water competition but there is some Libor to to to lower it uh such as grass coverage intensity that has to be adapt to local conditions and objectives of grape production by managing special structure and duration of cross cover uh grass coverage composition should integrate leguminous plant to minimize nitrogen competition and folar nitrogen fertilization could be an offsetting practice in the case of total permanent crossover so I’m I thank you for your attention and I’m ready for some questions thank you Laur um so we do we have all the questions now um we actually had two questions but general ones for cover crops even for Daniel or ilas um about Mouse and snails in the cover crops so how is mouse control carried out in coverage with dead merching uh it appears at for year that’s a big problem uh for the mice in it lives in the in the cover crops and same for snakes uh there are several problem with this issue so is one of you aware of that problem did you work on on that elas you want to do you want to reply especially in perennial crops this is an issue but not in all the majority of the fields I would say again I would say that this is something specific and it depends in various factors I mean uh how much this uh this m will stay in the in the surface on the surface H how how large is this quantity of uh of residues but in general uh I would say that we have observed some some effects but not quantify this uh this effect in in Greece at least our experiments yeah I can add shortly uh one one piece of information from our experience we had problem with snails in uh sunflower established by uh no till sewing in UM Vet uh dead match uh some years ago in a in a non Farm experiment and actually uh there was a problem only when the seed far was kept open so where the soil was too uh uh too wet at the moment of The Sewing and this could be an option so there are also direct uh control means like iron phosphate that we can use also in organic farming but I think that prevention and uh uh I don’t know maybe integration integration of uh chicken or other other animals in the system could could help and uh about mice I I guess if you have problem with mice uh noil is not a good option or at least continuous notil so maybe the good the good way is to uh foresee any uh deep tillage like chiseling uh to disturb the mice like once every three four years in order to uh reduce the mice density and then maybe to establish a more conservative system thank you Daniel so now we have two questions for vigard uh for l so um uh do you um so do you nitrogen applied by legum so about nitrogen application by leguminous can it reach a undesirable effects in increasing Vigor Vigor in Vineyard so how do you control Vigor problems due to leguminous oh you’re muted la yes uh it’s an idea an ID um often uh it’s often a barrier to cover crops with perennial leguminous to think that there will um there will uh improve uh to much the Vigor but in our trials uh cover crops were uh permanent and uh total under and under the r and on all the inter RS so um the competition by the C was um was very important and uh the integration of leguminous plants uh was just sufficient to balance the nitrogen competition and uh to regulate the Vigor uh and we didn’t see uh any um excess of the Vigor so thank you it was not a problem okay and there is another the question um have sheep grazing been tried in cover crop Management in the vineyard and the benefit they bring with him uh sorry do you can you have you tried uh grazing by sheeps uh in cover crop uh in Vineyards and uh no we didn’t um but I um we have a in in we have exchange with the farm with wi Gras that uh that do that that and um it is a possibility uh during winter uh the main difficulty uh is to uh to other on the same plate same region um the ship uh available for the for the for the and and the wine growing uh sometimes uh uh it’s difficult to find but it’s it’s it’s one option for um winter regulation of cover crops uh until uh bad burst of the vine okay uh so I have one last question and then we will switch to Christian frasconi um so again for Vineyards for you so are there any cover crops uh that you can recommend that don’t require cultivation before drilling sewing in order to get a good establishment so is it you have species for a good establishment without uh drilling before sewing and are there any other methods aside from cultivation and direct drilling they recommend for the establishments of the cover crops so without um P that’s it yes yeah it’s difficult um po over crops and other RS uh the best solution uh if uh you don’t want to to to to invest uh in teage or in soing is spontaneous vegetation uh and uh and uh all the covers that we have sewn under the rose are covers up with a very little seats so it’s important to to to have tillage before the the sowing so the best option is is the spontaneous vegetation if you don’t want to have chage and on the on the inter Rose um it is difficult also to to to to sew to S uh without chage um uh it’s possible the direct direct sewing is an option it’s an interesting option in wine growing systems because uh it avoid a teage just before uh the at Harvest because sewing period and harvest in vulture are in the same time the same time but we have seen that uh it’s there is a better uh efficacity when uh there there there is teage uh during the summer uh before the the the the sewing so it’s difficult to have a good a good cover without any and I can’t recommend one speci in particular okay thanks a lot Laur so we still have two presentation now so we’ll go uh with Christian frascone y y we are can you see my screen we can see your desktop yes that’s fine now good morning everyone I will talk you about machine for C cop management so sorry the panel okay uh machine for cover crop establishment machine for CR crop so incorporation so cover crop manager as a green manure cover crop devitalization if you manage cover crop as dead match and cover crop enagement as living MCH okay okay cover crop establishment uh we can say that conventional preparation of the seed bed for kber crop with primary tillage secondary tillage it’s not a simplii not so simple for a farmer so this quite conventional approach could be justified if the the following crop cash crop is saw in no till soil on the o crop that much if you we want to simplify the cover crop establishment a solution could be uh uh also to gain Timeless uh mount on combined cultivator this electric powered pratic broadcast sewing machine here we are so this is the oper here we have the metering system device powered by an electric motor here we have the fun that can um uh made the fuits of air for conveying the on the seeding tube the seeds and the seed are spread just in front the rear roll and the rear roll Ure the bual of the seed so in a single passage we can teage the soil and seeding the cover crop the work speed of the operative machine can vary from 7 to 10 kilov per hours so we can have a high Field capacity in term of Hector per hour regarding cover crop establishing for Orchard and V vard uh recently in a project we work on a prototype of seeding machine for differenti crover crop system so in this case we have under the row trium subterraneum Subterranean Clover and a mix of Poe and Fab on the Intero so we use unfortunately a mechanical seedar and we provide the oper of this mechanical Ceder with internal lateral partition so in this region of the the oper we have the seed of the triol of terranium and in the rest part of the oper we have the mix of cover crop for the inter uh these are the Ming device that are powered mechanically by the rear roll in this way we have the proportional Distribution on the seeds or the amount of seeds according with the working speed of the machine and here we have a rolling arer in order to til the soil just under the row we have a slide here a metal slide so the seats arrive on the side pipe here and then broadcast are spread on the Sol surface and with this finger Wier we want to uh we attempt to create create a system in order to bury the the the seeds uh the seed of the inter for the inter P by gravity to this slide just uh before the passing of the rear roll uh this machine doesn’t work so well but the interest the the interesting part of this project is that probably the triol in subterraneum for our region is a good option for the for create a a cover crop under the roow this is the vegetative stage and at the beginning of June in our region the theum Subterranean and his life cycle so it remind this dead March just under the roow and this is an an interest aspect probably this kind of machine could be optimized using an electric powered pratic Broan SE machine with double oper and double set in my set double Ming device regarding cover crop soil incorporation green manual so we we can conventionally we have PL or discar here we have a video about a PTO powered with opposite motion respect of the of the tools respect of the wheel of the tractor and this machine works works quite well we have a good incorporation of the cover crop but consider that its working speed is quite low so input energy input file consumtion could be quite High recently uh in Italy is available this machine is mini plow for reduced tillage so we can have u a larger a wider uh working uh machine okay uh I’m quite skeptic about the creation of art pan uh just below the tillage but the manufacturer I sure that the 45 inclination and the plug share avoid the formation of outp regarding the cover crop incorporation on vineard we can have power PTO power rotary machine or combined cultivator could work also quite well if we want the vitalized mechanically the cover crop uh many machine for mechanical cover crop devitalization are now available uh they can be divid in Cut roller Ral crimper if we have this blade that is sharpened we can cut the cover crop and leave the veget on the the veget part on SOL surface and the roll Creer is have not sharpened the blade here and create a longlasting that much because don’t cut the stems but PR the stem enhanching the theal inest uh we have model of this type of machine for one yard okay we can model for a bashes and extensive crop uh we have high working speed also in vineard well for reaching 7 kilm per hour we have to a a good tractor driver but we can say we can reach it okay and in open field we can uh arrive up to 25 kilov per hour so I working capacity uh we tested in our trial the effect of mechanical devitalization with this kind of uh operative machine and in combination with flaming Okay so a thermal treatment just after the mechanical devitalization in this graph we can see the trend of the devitalization so the loss of green cover along the time uh we can see that there are not so much difference between the different type of Ro used but there are some difference if we add the thermal treatment okay we have a a faster devitalization and we arrive at the level of the vitalization lower that with the RO alone but we have to consider the cost of flaming per Hector that are here 341 per hectar so if the cash crop is example processing tomato and here in Italy for weed control the most used technique is plastic March probably uh this cost can be sustainable but in other way I don’t know regarding cover crop as lighting MCH in there is this special mher Mulcher that with this convey El coidal conveyor device cut the biomass and deliver the cuted biomass just just under the uh crop row uh is quite good technique but in some cases the wet and fresh biomass of the cover crop uh can create an environment that could be favorable for pathogen and create uh the rotten of the uh trunk of the crop uh in other uh research we just want to replicate the tough grass Management in a liveing March in vineard and in order to contain uh the Manpower requirement for the continuous operation of moving we use an autonomous mov this one is an autonomous wer for a little garden for domestic garden and uh but if your vineard is quite flat like a full table we can say without no obstacle we can obain good result consider that these auton autonomous mve [Music] um follow random trajectory Christian I’m sorry it’s been over 13 minutes so I will just ask you to close out quite soon okay sorry this is a more professional uh autonomous mover for vine yard pay attention to the purchase cost regarding cover crop imagin much in vegetable uh crop uh one can ask how you can transplant vegetable crop in laving MCH we developed a special noter planter here is the video okay I speed up and as in wi we test an autonomous W but we have to put some protection of on the plant so in this case the the working is the work is the research work is still in progress this is my Keyon so I’m ready for question Okay Christian so we will just take one question and then switch to Christina Melone presentation so in arable crops have you any experience on possible solutions for combining cover crop establish M with other cultivation operations Beyond soil tillage operation such for example such as uh the Harvest so they give an example use of pneumatic seed distributor installed on the Harvester uh no I have no direct experience but I know that probably in United States this is a a quite promising technique I I have seen some work about it but I have no experience about that okay thanks a lot Christian so now we will start the last presentation for today’s webinar so uh Christina Melone is online but I will share uh the screen for her so hi thanks a lot Emma thanks for sharing your screen for me yeah so I’m not ready yet I’m just I’m just occupying the space the time in between okay so uh what screen do you see Emma your desktop okay so I will try to switch as I did before um perfect well I can okay thanks thanks perfect so very rapid thanks a lot thanks a lot very rapidly I would just like to share with you some practical experiences we have here in the northeastern part of Italy where I live where I am from uh namely the region of RI Vana Julia but we can enlarge a little bit the the the area of action and um I I have to say that much of the experience we have in the last about 30 years of of working with cover crops is totally in line with the previous uh with the previous presentation and I gain a lot of of new ideas and and um and nice uh nice suggestions from the previous presentation so thanks a lot to previous speakers if we may go to the next slide please I would like just to to to specify a few features of our region that are somehow putting some conditions in the use of of uh of cover crops or for any purpose we used to be the the the region in Italy with the highest rainfall we are in between the the Adriatic Sea and the Alps and so the rainfall used to be very high very high and so we never consider water as a limiting factor for our crops we grow we have we have been growing a lot of corn in most recent years soybean we have a lot of vtic culture Apple production not so so so much ortic culture or vegetable cropping but and nevertheless water was never considered a limiting factor but in the last years it started to became a concern last year it was really a shock for us for our farmers and for the people working in agriculture because we never experienced such a um a lack of water availability for for the for summer crops and also for winter crops so uh now that is I I put some Meto data here but we don’t need to read them anyhow last year it was extremely rain um dry year this year we have a very scatter precipitation pattern nevertheless the total rainfall was not as high as it used to be so in the long term we know for sure we have to cope with less water what is really uncertain is the pattern of distribution that is impacting of course all the crop management but specifically what what we are talking today it is impacting how when and how we can seow cover crops and how and when we can terminate them uh so we have been used for with very vigorous vegetation for many years for for I mean that was the normal situation due to the the high availability of water but that means also a long period with high weed risk or pressure pressure because rain was conditioning and producing quite the situation where weeds in in summer crops had total opportunity to develop uh last year uh due to the draw we were experiencing something completely opposite so I mean this answer certainity is also conditioning the way we look at cover crops uh if we want to be positive we start also uh appreciating some other uh Agro environmental effects and some buffer effect towards for example the water being it too much or being it too little and on the other hand it’s also becoming quite interesting the potential to buffer the eat waves that we are facing during summertime together with the meteor condition we have to consider also the soils of course going from the Alps to the seaside the the variation of the soil types is is huge but much of the region is characterized by very high percentage of of skeleton so lot of uh stones in the soil and if we consider that together with the fact that we have in organic farming we do not want to use herbicide we are not allowed to use herbicides you can understand how difficult it is to cope with that with mechanical tools uh mechanical Tools in in a High skeleton soils uh have two problems basically on one side they don’t perform very well and on the other side it’s very expensive because the tools should be change very frequently can we go to the next slide please please so I try to go very rapidly through the three main uh crop groups we are growing here in the in the in the region if we consider the use of cover crops in in V culture and fruit crops I think there is quite a long-term experience in V culture and it is also somehow contaminating the fruit production because the The Experience gain in vtic culture is also use in in other fruit crops mainly apples and kiwi fruits uh as I already mentioned initially it was also only considered as a green manure I mean supplying nutrients to the to the to the crops nowadays other other effects are getting more interesting uh dealing with Innovation we are experimenting uh different materials different species and different varieties in the use of um of cover crop and especially mixes of varieties and of species we are still looking for good ideas in the Su for the use in in summer leguminous crops uh with heat resistance um crotalaria is something we introduced in the last years but still I mean there is still space for for experimentation and for improvement and considering the challenges for sure mechanization that is not only managing the cover crop but also be respectful to the soil and not too expensive because on the other hand we have to cope with many small farmers who cannot invest too much in mechanization so we are considering also the sharing of Machinery but it’s not so simple so we need some mechanical tools good to to to terminate the cover crop respect to soil may be doing more than one thing at once but they should not be too expensive and there the offer is not really so so so rich so far next slide please uh considering the use of cover crops in in arabor crops um well there is the place where probably we have the longer experience as I mentioned before the the aror props characterizing our our region are corn and soybean and with a little bit less interest also winter Cals so normally the cover crop is an Autumn Zone cover crop being it a mixture of pea vetch and and cereals or or even more much more complicated with the use of of other species nevertheless the summer crops Su summer cover crops uh became uh interest and use in practice a little bit later mainly for weed management um as an help to weed management of course also automon cover crops are are useful as a diversification in the crop rotation to reduce the Seedbank but summer zwn or late spring zwn cover crops such as Sudan grass for example are much more interesting for for weed control in summer crops um and and Sudan grass is quite is quite efficient it is very good for for weed management but as a side effect it is also producing a lot of organic matter so also in terms of soil fertility is quite interesting just briefly because it was already mentioned before we are experimenting since many years also with the roller crier technique here you see in the picture in the center a specific roller crier that we uh ask to build for us and it’s exactly in the attempt to to improve they use in stone uh in soils with a lot of stones where the machines if especially if they go to a certain speed tend to not to be adherent to the soil Contin continuously so we were facing some problems with the normal roller crimper in um having an homogeneous termination of the of the cover crop very briefly just few words we have experiencing basically um rot Creer for corn and for soybean more recently for sunflower but soybean is where we have more uh more results with the ray r as a cover crop uh preceding it on the other end for corn we are not really satisfied so far we are still working hard on it using p as a preceding cover crop and in both casing rolling it and with direct sewing of of corn and and soil being at third next slidee please dealing with vegetables um here as well we have many small farms and usually they are producing vegetable for direct crop so it means a huge diversification in term of species and of moment of transplant so we okay cover crop is use on this as Danielle was mentioning in his presentation is quite shouldn’t say common but it’s quite frequently used but we wanted to to apply the the concept of cover crop uh or living mes and roller cream also in vegetable production and Following also the experience of some research done in here in Italy by the group of Danelle but also of Kaa in in the mar region but we were facing the problem of how to transplant the vegetable afterwards and to do it by hand is is not an option being it in in in green houses or open even even less in Open Fields so since three years we are working with a transplanter produced in Germany that is a that is in just you see the the detail in the picture on the on the right this machine uh is able to plant the the vegetables in even 30 cm of of uh living MCH or or fresh Mulch Green Mulch and we are experimenting several options for for doing that so far we have we had excellent results last year with the drought and with the heat waves this year with the more rain we were facing some troubles in the U I mean in the development of the of the plants but also with some slugs so there is still space for for work to to to fit it to to our reality but it’s very promising especially for in a CL in a changing climate and with the the water scarcity we are facing I think it’s really really something we have to to to take into consideration and and we are doing that I think would be nice also to cooperate with somebody else working on this mechanization for planting or seeding vegetables in a green MCH or living MCH I mean that’s that’s room for maneuver we are very much interested on um what are the in Innovation is uh I think I already mentioned them uh and about the challenges again is the economic sustainability because we can have many machines but uh but if the farmer has to to pay them back with what they produce uh it’s not exactly easy um another challenge is the the cultivation as cover crop of species or mixture that can allow to to reach multiple goals being them soil fertility um and um Mitigation Of of drought and so on and sometimes these these goals can be contrasting so we really have to to work on on assessing in in depth their potential and their their constraints I think I finished can I go to the last uh slide I hope I was respecting the time yes you were you can have great I you can find quite some material from our experience in our web page and also on YouTube we we produce quite a lot of videos so even if they are in Italian I think the video has the advantage that everybody can can can look at it and also on organic farm knowledge that is the platform that we are sharing with other partners at European level where we store materials about knowledge practical knowledge in organic farming thanks a lot thank you uh we have one question here for Christian actually uh where can we have more information about the machine in your last slide for vegetable crops okay can you hear me yeah we can hear you for the the not trans sorry is is the not the transplanter is correct the last slide yeah the last slide yeah is a prototype is we we made it we we we purchase a normal transplanter and we modified it uh if you are interested there is an article scientific article and then we we modified it further more but uh you you can have my mail if you have any question I can have more details more video more image so essentially we added a dis a a vertical disc in order to cut the the dead MCH or the vegetative part of the Liv March then we add a shank okay for create the The Farrow where you have to put the little plant then there is the fer of the the normal transplanting machine and then the two two rubber wheels that close the The Farrow this is what we do thank you I don’t think we have any questions if you can just confirm Cami but I don’t see any more we have an additional one that just here so it’s again about mulching material so has anyone studied that mulching material collection machines to collect outside the crop field so to collect the dead mat out of the crop field do you have worked on did you work on any machines well we we in it in Frei I mean for the vegetable trial we also have two option of plain material produced Elsewhere for example alpha alpha uh cutting or straw spread on top of of the soil and then uh on top of it the veget the vegetable plants were transplanted if that was the meaning yeah I think it was the question was what to use to sprad it we use the St spreader that usually is used in the The Stables it’s not perfect but we couldn’t do anything else okay thanks a lot Christina um so it appear that for now there are no more questions so I think that’s it for today um so thanks to all the speakers today for this presentation uh we will close out the webinar and to the participants uh please if you have time uh can you fill the survey that you will receive afterwards thanks a lot and have a good day thank you good bye thank you by