Woody Van Arkel - Perennial ground cover

Laurent (Woody) Van Arkel farms just south of Dresden, ON. Past president of the IFAO, he has long been innovating with no-till and cover crops, in his corn, soy, wheat and sugar beets.

In 2019, he strip-tilled into his perennial cover crops, planted corn and then… didn’t spray. He ran mowers between the corn rows to keep the covers down. He has since been tweaking the cover crop species to be lower growing and less aggressive, band- spraying to keep the crop rows cleaner and modifying his own ‘Row Mow’ unit. 

He is partnering with federal researchers, through Living Lab – Ontario, to better understand the potential for perennial cover crops in his side-by-side plots.