One way to control runoff of nitrogen and phosphorus is to have a growing crop on the field. “That’s why cover crops are so important,” said Gary Schnitkey, professor at the University of Illinois and U of I Extension farm management specialist.

If you raise corn and soybeans, cover cropping could help you increase profits, but not right away, according to Rob Myers, regional director of Extension programs for the USDA-NIFA North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program. Myers is with University of Missouri. He presented “The Bottom Line with Cover Crops: Evaluating Their Economic Impact on Corn and Soybean Production” as a recent webinar hosted by Purdue University Center for Food and Agriculture Business, Cornell University Cooperative Extension, American Farmland Trust, Wood Soil & Water Conservation District and IPM Institute.

Joe Gardiner of Clearwater, Manitoba, has an insurance policy against a wet spring next year. Gardiner is one of a growing number of Manitoba farmers to embrace cover crops, having started the practice several years ago in an effort to increase fall grazing.

There simply are not many fields of barley in Illinois, Missouri and Iowa these days, and that’s not likely to change much. Cost, climate and marketing opportunities are most conducive to growing it elsewhere.

It’s not enough to convince producers to give cover crops a shot — there needs to be a game plan. There are plenty of reasons why.

When the earthworms started coming back, Tim Little knew he was doing something right. Little, who farms north of Faribault, Minnesota, saw more worms in his fields, gathering piles of dead plants above their holes, after he made a drastic departure from farming tradition.

Al Schafbuch said Iowa farmers are moving too slowly in adopting conservation practices that would help improve the quality of the state's rivers, streams and lakes. With only about 7% of Iowa farmland planted in cover crops, "it will take 100 years to get this done," Schafbuch said. "We can't wait 100 years."

Increasing adoption of cover crops and improving agricultural sustainability are goals of a nationwide research project. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently awarded a five-year $10 million grant to North Carolina State University and the USDA Agricultural Research Service to lead the effort.

When 4 million acres of the South Dakota’s crops couldn’t be planted in 2019, there was a powerful need for cover crop seeds. Millborn Seeds Inc. of Brookings was one of the players in the region’s seed business that scrambled to cover prevented-planting acres for their customers.