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A great deal depends on how you would structure U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic
a cover crop incentive program, says Clay Pope, a Research Service. That’s a 50% increase from
wheat grower and member of the National Asso- 2012, when farmers planted 10.3 million acres.
ciation of Wheat Growers who farms near Loyal,
Oklahoma. “Every area is going to be different,” Producers are asking how cover crops can bene-
he adds. “You’ve got to have some flexibility and fit their yields and overall soil health, and people
the opportunity to make changes as more infor- like Jared Knock, who works in business devel-
mation becomes known.” opment for Millborn Seeds, encourage everyone
to be thinking about multiple benefits.

Cover .crop .usage .spreads, .but .still . In recent years, he’s seen more organizations,
concentrated both public and private, “who are looking to
help farmers voluntarily adopt these practices,
In every county in the United States where there which have shared benefits, not only for the
is a cash crop such as wheat, corn, soybeans, farmer but for the rest of the ecosystem.”
cotton or fruit, nuts and vegetables, at least
one farmer is now planting a cover crop, from “There’s more prosperity in the farm commu-
Delaware to California and even Hawaii, says nity than we’ve had in a while so people are able
Rob Myers, the national liaison on cover crops to think longer-term, bigger picture, about what

and soil health for the Sustainable Agriculture my farm might look like in 100 years instead of
Research and Education (SARE) program and just trying to make annual payments,” Knock
the director of the University of Missouri’s Cen- said. “Couple that with the talk about agricul-
ter for Regenerative Agriculture. ture’s role of decarbonizing the environment

The .surge .in .interest .really .started .happening .around .a .decade .
ago .and .a .lot .of .that .was .connected .to .soil .health . .As .people .have .
learned .more .about .how .to .manage .soil .health, .the .interest .in .cover .
crops .has .really .shot .upwards .

— .Rob Myers . .
University .of .Missouri’s .Center . .
for .Regenerative .Agriculture

“The surge in interest really started happening and people are seeing that climate-smart agri-
around a decade ago and a lot of that was con- culture is really conservation agriculture.”
nected to soil health,” Myers told Agri-Pulse. “As
people have learned more about how to manage Cover crops are more commonly used in some
soil health, the interest in cover crops has really areas of the U.S. than others. In Maryland,
shot upwards.” where planting cover crops has been heavily pro-
moted and incentivized by the state government
In 2017, U.S. farmers planted 15.4 million acres to curb pollution into the Chesapeake Bay, cover
of cover crops, according to a report by the crops were grown on 33% of the cropland in

8 www.Agri-Pulse.com