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Caleb .Akin, .a .co-operator .of .A&W .Farms .in .Cambridge, .Iowa, .looks .at .the .buckwheat .cover .crop .
growing .in .his .organic, .no-till .soybean .field .

are cutting them for hay and allowing them to northwest Kansas. He said many producers who
be grazed. Others are starting to earn credits raise sorghum in dry climates feel the same way.
through fledgling carbon markets. The U.S.
airline industry is looking at oilseed cover crops “Moisture is going to be our limiting factor to
as a potential feedstock for the biofuel needed to what we can produce, and hence, our profitabil-
reduce the carbon footprint of jets. ity,” Atkisson told Agri-Pulse. “So, we don’t want
to see any kind of a mandated-type cover crop
But cover crops may not work well everywhere, in a system, because they just don’t necessarily
and some farmers are warning about the unin- work in every geography.”
tended consequences that could occur if the
federal government and private industry go too Sorghum and wheat growers are also concerned
far in promoting the practice. that incentives for cover cropping systems, which

In water-strapped areas of the central and may work well for corn and soybean growers in
southern Plains and western regions of the the Midwest, will simply encourage growers to
United States, cover crops can pose a challenge plant more corn and soybeans in arid regions
for farmers like Dan Atkisson, who gets around of the country — thereby reducing plantings
20 to 22 inches of rainfall each year on his of winter wheat and sorghum or incentivizing
cattle, wheat, sorghum and corn operation in more irrigation.

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