Control experiences: Important knowledge of the crop rotation guidelines

The Bio Suisse guidelines on crop rotation should be followed for many reasons. On the one hand, these guidelines help maintain and ideally increase soil fertility. On the other hand, any infringements can lead to reductions in direct payments.  

The Bio Suisse requirements for crop rotation have an exclusive status: as part of the requirements for the organic performance certificate (ÖLN), they are also a prerequisite for receiving direct payments. Therefore, it is always worthwhile taking a closer look at this matter. 

The crop rotation regulations do not apply to permanent crops and protected cultivation: in both cases, there are no crop rotation requirements.

How should my crop rotation area be greened?

Farms with at least 20 per cent grassland in the crop rotation area (FFF)
This is the most common starting position with the simplest basis for calculation.

At least 20 per cent of the crop rotation area must be grassed with artificial meadows, wildflower strips, or rotational fallow (12-month cultivation period). Each individual area must be covered at least once every 10 calendar years with one of the aforementioned year-round green covers.

Farms with less than 20 per cent grassland in the crop rotation area (FFF)
During bio.inspecta inspections, it is often observed that an increasing number of farms, lacking roughage utilisation, often work with the alternative approaches described below. In all cases, it is mandatory that at least ten per cent of the FFF is grassed all year round with artificial meadows, wildflower strips, or rotational fallow.

The following measures can be considered to make up the missing ten per cent greening of the crop rotation areas:

1. Annual crops (e.g. maize milled seed) can count as year-round green areas if their green coverage is at least 60 per cent of the field area. However, they must remain on the field for at least 12 months and be sown at least three months before the main crop.
2. Grain legumes can count as a year-round green area if green manure is sown after the crop. This green manure must be sown before 1 September and may be incorporated no earlier than 15 February of the following year.   
3. Intercrops, green manure crops or undersown crops with a duration of at least five months can be credited based on area or crop duration. The crediting of undersown crops begins after the harvest of the main crop.
4. If several green manure crops are cultivated and successively incorporated on an area within a year (with the harvested crop not being removed), the area can be counted as a year-round greened. This relatively new guideline passage was created to meet the needs of regenerative agriculture.

There are also strict requirements for dormancy

At least 50 per cent of the open arable land (excluding arable and rotational fallow land) must be covered with vegetation outside the growing period, between 15 November and 15 February. The following are counted towards this requirement: over-wintering crops, artificial meadows planted within the current year, intercrops, green manure, and harvested crops with an intact root system. Crop rotation areas that are greened all year round cannot be counted towards this.

Crop breaks as prophylaxis for crop rotation damage

Crop breaks are differentiated between arable and vegetable cultivation. The required cultivation breaks in vegetable cultivation are longer and, unlike arable farming, do not relate to main crops of the same species but rather to the same family (e.g. cruciferous plants). In vegetable growing, for example, there is a 24-month cultivation break between two main crops (14-week cultivation period) of the same family.

In arable farming, there is a one-year break between two main crops of the same species (wheat-wheat). If 30 per cent of the crop rotation area is greened, the same crop can be cultivated once in succession within a five-year period.

Published on www.bioaktuell.ch