Coordinating agronomist: Lorraine Vandermyden
Organization: Ontario Soil Network
Practice: Cover cropping
Trial started: Spring 2026
Barrier: Farmers adopt cover crops to build soil health and increase crop yields and resilience. However, the residue left on the soil surface can also provide forage and habitat for unwanted pests, including slugs. Slugs have become an increasingly common and difficult challenge for growers in Southern Ontario, causing severe early-season damage to cash crops such as corn, edible beans, and soybeans. They also feed on cover crops, reducing biomass production and its associated benefits. Farmers may respond by replanting, increasing tillage, or reducing residue cover. Some have identified slug pressure as a major barrier to maintaining or expanding cover crop acres. Practical, applied research on slug management in Ontario cash crop systems is extremely limited.
Description: Three replicated, randomized block field trials in Southern Ontario will support farmers in evaluating potential slug management practices relevant to their own production systems. Trials will examine shallow spring strip tillage in soybeans, iron applied in the seed trench in corn and edible beans, and adding a brassica to a cover crop mix. Slug counts, early-season plant damage, cash crop yield, field observations, labour requirements, and economics will be assessed. The results will provide practical, locally relevant observations on how these practices perform and help inform future slug management research and decisions.