Joe Curless of Curless Flying Service in Astoria, IL was recently interviewed by the Illinois Farm Bureau Partners publication about how aerial applicators practice soil and water stewardship from the air. In the interview, Curless provides background about how his father, Harley Curless, found his way into aerial application and how their operation aerially applies cover crops as a key conservation tool for farmers.

 

“The cover crop helps keep my soil in place and keeps my nutrients – which are expensive – in the soil,” Curless says. “That way, my crops can utilize them, and they stay out of the watershed.”

 

One of the most promising conservation practices aerial applicators can assist farmers with is cover crops. Cover crops are grasses, legumes, small grains and other low-maintenance crops planted specifically to improve soil health and biodiversity. By sowing the seeds aerially with a preharvest cover crop application, cover crops control erosion, retain and recycle soil nutrients, build organic matter to improve soil health, improve water quality and moisture availability, and break disease and insect cycles. They can also be a key source of nutrients for pollinators.

 

According to the article, a recent satellite-based survey by the University of Illinois shows farmers in the Midwest planted cover crops on 140 million acres in 2021 – or 7.2% of the region’s crop acres – up fourfold from a decade earlier.

 

As the market for cover crops has grown, so has ag pilots’ interest in the burgeoning niche. Cover crops can allow aerial applicators to extend their flying season by three to four weeks in August and September.