Green manure boosts cereal yields, but animal manure and catch crops fade.
A long-term experiment on organic crop rotation for cereal production found that using green manure crops increased yields in individual cereal crops, but overall yields were higher without them. Animal manure and catch crops also had positive effects on yield, but these effects decreased over time when grass-clover green manure was included in the rotation. The study highlights the importance of considering long-term effects when evaluating crop management practices.