Field trials of a new cover crop, CoverCress, are in its third year at the Illinois State University Farm and multiple benefits are being realized as intended.

This University of Minnesota Extension blog offers advice on when to fertilize winter wheat and winter rye.

Cover crops can offer a number of benefits to a cropping system including increased biodiversity, crop/livestock integration, erosion control, or water management. One of the greatest risks to cover cropping is failure to establish, and in North Dakota that often is the result of insufficient moisture. What can be done to reduce the risk of cover cropping?

It has been hard for scientists to predict how much extra water farmers can expect when they use regenerative agriculture practices that improve soil carbon. This is important because many farmers consider water management to be the biggest reason to adopt soil health management practices like cover crops.

Minnesota State FBM included initial findings from 17 farms growing cover crops in its annual report, Influence of intensified environmental practices on farm profitability, which was released in April. The preliminary data shows the seed cost, input costs and other expenses producers incurred growing a winter cover crop.

To help understand cover crop decomposition and N release throughout the growing season, University of Nebraska researchers designed a study using “litterbags” — a common method to research crop decomposition. This research is part of the Precision Sustainable Agriculture (PSA), a collaborative project supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s Sustainable Agricultural System Coordinated Agricultural Projects from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).