Mr. Paul Moore:

Yes. From my experience, probably half the time there is not green cover on the shallow cultivated areas. You do not go in and set a crop when the conditions are not right. For example, I do not decide I will have all my barley sown by the middle of March just because it is the middle of March. Rather I wait until the conditions are right. Having this thing of having to cultivate two weeks after harvest just does not work. There was no green cover in half the fields I came across. These are shallow cultivated fields. They had not established the green cover. I can show the Senator the pictures on my phone afterwards if he would like. It just does not seem to be working. I suppose there is a feeling among tillage farmers that perhaps the Department wants to be seen to be taking action without actually knowing if it is going to work. Green cover does work to soak up nitrates, but if you are not establishing a green cover, it will not work and it is probably making things worse. That is why I said cover crops might be a suitable alternative, even though, again, it is an added expense for the farmer. There will be deeper roots with cover crops than just a shallow cultivation measure where you are cultivating the seeds that are already on or in the soil. Cover crops will go down deeper and have different root structures.