Cover Crop Strategies editors encounter a variety of articles, social media posts, podcasts and videos that offer a unique look at various aspects of our great agricultural industry. Here is our favorite content from the past week:

Using Cover Crops to Reduce Inputs

Tim Keegan farms 4,000 acres of corn and soybeans and runs a 150-head cow operation in Iowa with his in-laws. Cover crops are one of many conservation practices they implement in their row-crop operation. To ensure the most accurate use of nutrients, they routinely run on-farm nitrogen and population trials and use precision technology. In this workshop from Practical Farmers of Iowa, Tim discusses how they use precision technology, zone mapping and grid sampling to better apply seed, fertilizer and chemicals. He also discusses their use of cover crops and how it has helped them decrease inputs.

Seeding Cover Crops Efficiently

Salisbury Farms in central Illinois seeds a cereal rye cover crop in an October 2025 throwback video. They use a John Deere 8270R tractor pulling an Unverferth rolling harrow cover crop seeder. Follow along with Jay Salisbury while he finishes seeding cover crops and does other chores around the farm.

How Strip Till and Cover Crops Work Together

In this episode of Around the Farm, Tom and Andy sit down with Chris Perkins, owner of Banded Ag, at the National Strip-Tillage Conference Pre-Conference Workshop hosted by ForGround by Bayer. Chris shares his journey with strip till and cover crops, why his perspective on regenerative agriculture has changed and how ForGround is helping support practices already happening on his farm. They also discuss soil health, conservation programs, using AI to make farm management decisions and the importance of growers sharing their own stories. Plus, Chris explains what has surprised him most after combining strip till and cover crops on his southern Indiana operation.

The Cover Crop Math No One Else is Doing

Amos Troester sits down with John Haskell to walk through the real math — seed costs, dry matter production, stocking rates, daily gain, and cost per pound of gain — on grazing stocker calves through a fall cover crop in northeast Iowa. If you're already running cover crops and wondering whether to add livestock — this episode gives you the math to make that decision.

Cover Crop Acres Increasing Nationwide

The 2026 National Cover Crop Report indicates growing interest in cover crops among farmers. As reported in Afternoon Ag News, the survey found cover crop users planted an average of nearly 398 acres in 2026 and expect to exceed 400 acres next year. 

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