Michelle: Green manure crops work best if turned back in with as much bulk
as possible. Feeding off to livestock is just not the same unless you
collect the manure and compost it and respread it. In fact by feeding it off
you are depleting your soil and unless you have high biological activity the
manure will just lay there for some time.
The trend here in the mid-atlantic that is put forward by the
sustainable ag extension agents is that "root composting" is more
valueable that 'green manuring.' With this in mind, green manure
crops are cut down and raked off - usually to the compost pile where
they will live another day, probably a day in the fall. Turning in
the green mature is seen as slowing down the soil in the important
growing period. For some reason, it's assumed that the decaying root
mass will not deny nitrogen to a new crop, or, at least this is never
mentioned as a factor to wait for before planting the next crop.
Myself, I like to feed the greenmatter to rabbits and the rabbit
manure to the worms and the resulting crumbly to the beds later in
the season. -Allan
