Key Considerations as You Start Your Cover Crop Journey

A successful crop year begins in the soil. Changing practices on the farm is never easy, and before you set forth on your cover crop journey, there are some key considerations to ensure your approach to cover crop implementation is set up for success.

Every farm is different, so before diving right into planting cover crops, you may want to consider the following:

• Farm Management Strategy — Do you have a farm management challenge that can be solved with cover crops? For example, do you have issues with compaction? Cover crops can help reduce compaction by getting air and water deeper into the soil through their roots. What about weed pressure? Cover crops can reduce weed pressure by acting as mulch that suppresses weeds and disrupts conditions for weed seed germination.
• Start Small — Like any new practice, there is a learning curve. Increase the scale of your cover crop practice as you get more comfortable. To start, pick a field that is easy to monitor or an area that needs improvement and focus your cover crop planting there.
• Make Informed Decisions — Conduct research and talk with reliable sources before introducing cover crops into your farm management plan. Field days are a great opportunity to speak with a variety of experts in the field or talk to other farmers using cover crops. Great resources also include universities, agronomists and online forums. Keep in mind the location and cropping system of the information source. Lastly, you can make a plan for cover crop species selection, seeding rates, time of seeding and termination. To learn more about these topics, review the soy checkoff’s Take Action fact sheets.
• Expenses — Consider additional expenses, including seed selection and labor.
• Timing — Be timely with planting and scout early and often.
• Results — You may not see immediate results from planting cover crops because they are primarily planted for long-term benefits to the soil. There will likely be challenges and opportunities to try different methods to figure out what will benefit the farm most in the long term.