Cover Crops and No-Till Aren't Just Good for Soil — They Also Make Farmers More Money, Study Says

By Eva Tesfaye

Much of the research on regenerative farming practices, such as no-till or cover crops, has looked at the benefits to the environment and the soil. Now a new study finds these farming practices also have economic benefits for farmers.

Farmers can save money by using practices that improve soil, according to a study from the Soil Health Institute.

The study surveyed 30 farms across the United States that are using no-till agriculture, which minimizes soil disturbance, and cover crops, where plants are used primarily to keep soil in place between growing seasons.

Across 29 of those farms, these practices increased net farm income by an average of $65 per acre annually. The study also found that these practices cost farmers on average $14 per acre less to grow corn and $7 per acre less to grow soybeans.

“This is a way that is not only more profitable, but these practices can really help them build that resilience to those more extreme weather events,” said Wayne Honeycutt, president and CEO of the Soil Health Institute.

A 2021 study by the same institute that focused on 100 farms across the Midwest also found that these practices saved money and increased net income.

This could be because farmers are not spending as much on equipment used for tillage or using fertilizers on the soil.

“We save money by putting on these cover crops,” said Levi Lyle, a farmer in Keota, Iowa, in one of the videos shared with the study.

“The costs that are associated with putting on the cover crops, I feel like we are generating income for young farmers who are excited to sell cover crop seed.”

The positive environmental impacts of these practices are more well-known, such as improving resilience to extreme weather and reducing nutrient run-off. However, there is not as much research on how they impact farmers economically.

“Farmers are businessmen and women, and so they need to know that when they are changing their management practices that it will be economically beneficial for them to do so,” said Honeycutt.

Kelly Wilson, associate director of the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at the University of Missouri said that qualitative research like this is valuable, but the topic needs more as well as different types of research.

“You really have to take into account how different soil types, different regions, different climates, those things also play into the potential economic factors,” she said, “so that can be really hard to just look at something like this and compare it across.”