Cover crop usage continues to grow across the country. Last week, the Conservation Technology Information Center announced the findings of its eighth national cover crop survey. Rob Myers of Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education.
“Those that actually have experience working with cover crops have become very convinced of the benefits, and that’s something we hear from farmers widely, that once they’ve had a few years of experience with cover crops, they really tend to stick with them. They have become a believer in the benefits for soil health and other aspects of their farming and ultimately in their economic bottom line.”
Myers says some farmers question the economic return part of the cover cropping equation, wondering if it’s actually going to pay off.
“Understandably, any farmer making a decision on spending money on inputs, whether it’s cover crop, seed, new equipment, a fungicide, they’ve got to evaluate the economics. So, there’s a perception among those that haven’t yet used them that there might not be that economic return, especially in the first year. We could look at our past cover crop surveys of farmers to see quite a bit of economic data that actually does show that cover crops pay off, especially after the first two to three years.”
Cover crops are now the third most planted crop in Indiana behind corn and soybeans.
Source: NAFB News Service
