The 2022 Census of Agriculture results won’t be released until 2024, but data from that survey will be important to see how much cover crop usage has grown in the last five years.
“That’s the biggest thing we like to go off,” said University of Missouri cover crops specialist Bethany Bedeker. “Unless something astronomical has changed since the (2017 census), there is definitely room to grow.”
Cover crops have been a popularly promoted conservation practice by many agriculture organizations around the country. According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, released in 2019, 153,402 farms used cover crops covering more than 15 million acres. While those figures are expected to change, that leaves many acres that aren’t utilizing the practice.
“I would love to see half of our fields using cover crops, but I don’t think we are quite there,” Bedeker said. “Anyone who is supportive of cover crops would be ecstatic about a 100% adoption rate, but that’s not necessarily realistic.”
The USDA is continuing to promote cover crops, and there is renewed effort coming from more federal funding.
“That is all going to start hitting the ground running as soon as later this fall,” said Jason Johnson, state public affairs specialist with the USDA-NRCS in Iowa. “There is fertilizer going to be a lot of funding out there simultaneously to be trying new things and pushing to add new conservation practices.”
Cost and equipment is a potentially prohibitive aspect of growing cover crops, but Bedeker said that doesn’t have to be the case if you want to start small.
“I would say if you want to get started you can do it with minimal adjustments,” she said. “I’ve seen people who have overhauled their planter and added pressure systems and fertilizer systems, but others just use their normal planter and might have just adjusted their closing wheels.”
Adoption of cover crops has a direct tie with direct funding, according to Jonathan Coppess, University of Illinois director of the Gardner Agriculture Policy Program. He was part of a study that came out in November 2022 that showed acres increased as funding for the practice became more readily available.
“We also found the increase in cover crop adoption is highly correlated to the funding from federal and state conservation programs,” Coppess said. “The incentive programs play an important role in promoting sustainable agricultural practices.”
The study showed that cover crop usage in the Midwest increased from 1.8% to 7.2% from 2011 to 2021, but more acres are needed to make a significant improvement in soil health.
“It is certainly not at a level that would be necessary for some of the challenges, like the water quality challenges like soil erosion,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot more acres to get there.”
The goal for most cover crop advocates and agricultural officials is to continue promoting the practice and avoid any sort of mandate for cover crops from the federal level, as that is not likely to be received well, Bedeker said.
For producers who are unsure about cover crops in their operation, going to a no-till or limited-tillage system is a good way to start, she said.
“I’ve seen people who don’t necessarily want to fully cover crop a field, but they’ll strip till into cover crops or ease into it,” she said. “Not everything is going to work on every acre necessarily.”
Bedeker said producers aren’t likely to change their system overnight. The transition to more cover crop acres will continue to be gradual, but seeing any progress is good.
“As long as we are going in the right direction, it’s notable and encouraging,” she said.
