cover crops

Cover crops are an increasingly popular management practice among many U.S. farmers.  The goal is to provide seasonal living cover between their primary commodity cash crops.  Farmers plant those cover crops in the fall to provide winter cover for soil that otherwise would be bare.   The USDA’s...

For the ninth time in its 31-year history, the annual National No-Tillage Conference is returning to St. Louis.  Hosted by No-Till Farmer, the event will be held January 10-13.   The content covers myriad topics in no-till, including equipment, cover crops, intercropping, economic analyses, soil analysis, fertilizing methods and more. Among th...

According to ERS, cover crop mixes account for 18%-25% of acres with cover crops.  However, the use of single-species cover crops is more common.    For corn fields in 2021, almost 75% of acres with cover crops used a grass or small grain cover crop, such as cereal rye, winter wheat, or oats.  At 44% of ac...

A new USDA survey says cover crops are more popular than first thought.  Growers who responded to the survey say they’re using cover crops on 40% of their cropland in 2022.  Successful Farming says that hints at a sizable increase from the 15.4 million acres of cover ...

Cover crops are an increasingly popular management practice farmers use to provide seasonal living cover between their primary commodity cash crops. Farmers often plant cover crops in the fall to provide winter cover for soil that otherwise would be bare ...

Karen Sowers, Executive Director of the PNW Canola Association anticipates that despite the weather challenges of 2021, canola acreage will increase this growing season. She noted that more and more producers are learning of the benefits of canola beyond being a rotational crop ...

Cover crops aren’t just for your fields anymore, they are beneficial to your garden, too. The University of Illinois Extension said using cover crops in the home garden has many benefits, including soil structure, drawing nutrients up from deep in the soil, and increasing soil fertility. Cove ...

Farmers continue to plant more cover crops. According to Reuters those include everything from grasses like rye and oats to legumes and radishes. Some of them get converted to biofuels or fed to cattle, but most aren’t harvested because they’re more valuable when they break down in the soil. Rob My ...

The USDA's Economic Research Service said farmers utilizing cover crops most commonly choose rye grass or winter wheat. Researchers reported which cover crops were grown the fall before planting corn, cotton, and soybeans. For corn fields intended for use as grain or silage in data from 2016, more than 90% of acres with cover crops used a grass or small grain cover crop, such as rye, winter wheat

The Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday that farmers with crop insurance can now hay, graze or chop cover crops for silage, haylage or baleage at any time and still receive 100% of the prevented planting payment. Previously, cover crops could only be hayed, grazed or chopped after November 1, otherwise the prevented planting payment was reduced by 65% ...