Careful manure management is a principle of farm profitability and environmental stewardship. Applying manure to land that has a cover crop is another practice that can help with nitrogen management.

Cover crops can be used to benefit multiple aspects of your operation. However, in order to see notable improvement, specific areas you want to progress must be outlined so that a plan of action can be formed accordingly. As we get through the start of the New Year, now is a good time to set goals for cover crop performance and develop a strategic plan to achieve them.

You have read all the articles on soil health and you know how important it is. You have decided you want to try and plant cover crops, but where do you go to get started?

Farmers throughout history have taken advantage of off-season plant growth to enhance their next year’s crops. These plants, called cover crops, are beneficial in many ways, including protection against weed infestation and soil erosion, as well as feed for farm animals.

After a year of difficult weather and low commodity prices, farmers everywhere are cutting back on costs. At the Conservation Tillage Conference (CTC) in December, many growers looked at the economics of reduced tillage/no-till and cover crops, and whether or not those management practices really pay off.

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.