Cover crops work, users say

Cover crops – typically grasses sowed into corn and soybean fields after the fall harvest – could reduce nitrogen losses to Minnesota streams and rivers by 10 percent if the cover crops were widely adopted by farmers across the state, a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency report estimated in late June.

Read an agriculture.com report on a U.S. Department of Agriculture-sponsored survey of Corn Belt farmers who used cover crops last year. The survey respondents reported increased profitability for their corn and soybean acres during the 2012 drought.

Learn more about the survey and download the report.