Cover Crop Adoption: Results from 5 Years of Ag Economy Barometer Surveys

By Michael Langemeier and James Mintert et.al

When thinking about the adoption of conservation practices, like cover crops, it is important to note two things.  First, adoption rates have ebbs and flows; in other words, adoption does not necessarily follow a steady trend.  Second, sometimes conservation practices are disadopted, which may happen due to the termination of incentive payments and/or lack of profitability.  This article examines trends in the adoption of cover crops, cover crop experience, and percentage of acres planted to cover crops using data from the September Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer (AEB) surveys for the last five years.

The AEB survey is conducted each month to gauge producer sentiment among a group of U.S. agricultural producers (Langemeier and Mintert, 2025).  In addition to questions pertaining to sentiment, monthly AEB surveys periodically include questions pertaining to the adoption of production practices, such as cover crops.

Adoption of Conservation Practices

Nationwide, cover crops were planted on 4.7% of total cropland in 2022 (Bowman and Morales, 2024).  Plastina et al. (2024) examined cover crop adoption in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana using 2012, 2017, and 2022 Census data.  The adoption rate in 2022 was 5.1% of all cropland in the three states, which was 0.9% higher than the adoption rate reported in 2017.  From 2012 to 2017, there was a 3.0% increase in the adoption rate in the three states.

Disadoption of conservation practices occurs when the expected benefits associated with adopting a practice are outweighed by its costs.  Plastina et al. (2024) noted that adoption rates in 94 of the 291 counties in the I-States for which data were available declined (i.e., disadoption occurred) from 2017 to 2022.  This represents 32% of all counties in these states.