Cover crops | Soil health plants
The global market & RAGT
The challenge of soil and climate has led to the promotion of cover crops between two cash crops to limit erosion and trap nitrates.
Around the globe the interest in sustainable farming is rapidly growing. For instance in the European Union, farmers are now encouraged to cover the soil and are supported in doing this with subsidies and other benefits.
RAGT promotes more than just cover crops, a soil health plant breeding programme was successfully initiated in the early 1980s by our Dutch team.
Selected crops:
- Fodder radish
- White mustard
- Brown mustard
- Ethiopian mustard
- Rocket lettuce
- Vetches
- Phacelia
- Black oat
- Buckwheat
- Egyptian clover
- Crimson clover
- Forage brassica
Wide cover crop portfolio.
Innovator in soil health plants.
Two brands RAGT and Joordens.
Our Common challenges
Perceived as a constraint, this obligation can be an opportunity. There are measurable short-term benefits for farmers if the cover crop is well chosen.
More specifically, producers of biogas or livestock farmers can choose cover crops that generate biomass which then helps them increase production or diversify the feed intake of their herd.
More generally, cover crop mixtures can help structure the soil, improve deep-water drainage, supply nitrogen, or reduce weed or parasites, such as nematodes in potato and sugar beet rotations.
Building complex mixtures requires expertise in agronomy and plant physiology.
RAGT for farmers: yield, stability, and also
Well managed cover crops can provide many advantages. At RAGT we go further than simply mixing species, we are experts in varietal selection for soil health plants. In this way, we contribute to the continuous improvement of the performance of cover crops.
More than just mixtures of species, RAGT cover crops are a choice of high-performing varieties for more effective mixtures with multiple benefits.
Our breeding facilities, including a quarantine laboratory, give us a decisive competitive edge in our knowledge of cover crop varieties and in improving this promising agronomic tool. Cover crops and soil health are a pillar of regenerative agriculture and a cornerstone of RAGT’s strategy.
RAGT For Industries : Quality
Cover crops are an extremely efficient way of reducing carbon footprints.
Where you can find our varieties
Our Cover crops & soil health plants solutions
- Forage
- Perennial ryegrass
RGT 18
Endophyte, high performance when partnered with RAGT genetics
Did you know ?
This is a species where genetic progress remains important and constant. 20 years ago, the yield of irrigated maize was the same as it is today without irrigation.
Reasons to grow Cover crops & soil health plants
- The demand for more healthily produced food for humankind is increasing by the day. Intensive crop rotations encourage soil borne pests. The use of chemicals is more and more restricted. We see here the challanges for tomorrow. With our innovative breeding program on soil health plants we can help secure the agricultural production which feeds the world.
