Break crop
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Break crop is a term for the secondary crop within the practice of sustainable agriculture with intensive arable farming whereby as part of a crop rotation, a physiologically different crop is inserted into the main cropping plan in order to provide a "break" from the cycle of weeds, pests and diseases encountered with the latter. The aim is to optimize yields of the primary crops and therefore income while reducing the use, and cost, of pesticides. Nitrogen fixation can be another soil goal.
An example rotation would be winter oilseed rape as a break crop, followed by two crops of winter wheat, then winter barley or setaside. Another common example is maize (corn) that is typically rotated with cotton plantations.
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