Cover crops have many benefits, including suppressing weed emergence and growth. Planting soybeans in a standing cover crop and then terminating the cover crop stymies weeds without harming yield. Corn, however, is a bit trickier. Competition from the cover crop can reduce corn yield. In addition, failure to kill the cover crop in a timely manner and improper nitrogen management will result in fewer bushels.

Initial findings across over 2,400 acres in Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska demonstrate positive trends for the implementation of cover crops at field scale as compared to conventional management practices.

Wayne Fredericks, a corn and soybean farmer from Osage, Iowa, has been no-tilling soybeans since 1991 and strip-tilling corn since 2001. But ever since he tried using cover crops in 2012, he has been able to reduce his use of fertilizer by 30%.

‘Vinter’ is a new hairy vetch variety with superior winter survival and spring biomass production.

Farmers who use best practices to reduce carbon can be rewarded with soil carbon credits and earn additional income through carbon markets