Cover Crops Provide Multiple Benefits, Higher Yields

From the USDA:

Posted by Ciji Taylor, Natural Resources Conservation Service, on January 21, 2015 at 3:00 PM

USDA employees, Paul Youngstrum and Eric McTaggart, examine a cover crop radish. NRCS photo by Jody Christiansen.

Corn and soybean farmers across the nation saw an increase in yields last year thanks in part to soil health-building cover crops.

More than 1,900 farmers responded last winter to a survey about cover crops conducted by the USDA’s North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program and the Conservation Technology Information Center. The results to the survey were released in late fall.

Farmers who planted corn in a field following a cover crop had a 3.1 percent increase in yield compared to side-by-side fields with no cover crops. Likewise, soybean yields increased 4.3 percent following cover crops, according to the survey.

With assistance from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), farmers and ranchers are using cover crops to protect soil – their most valuable asset. Over the past six years, NRCS has helped landowners plant close to six million acres of cover crops by providing both financial and technical assistance.

Practices, like cover crops, help increase organic matter in the soil. In fact, one percent of organic matter in the top six inches of soil can hold about 27,000 gallons of water per acre. Increasing organic matter increases the holding capacity for water making land more resilient to extreme weather.

“By using practices like cover crops that enhance soil health, there will be more soil organic matter development and higher production potential. That results in a higher return on investment and true economic growth,” said Barry Fisher, NRCS Indiana soil health specialist.

Highlights of the 2013-2014 survey include:

• Cover crop acreage among survey respondents increased by 30 percent per year.
• Winter cereals – including winter wheat, cereal rye and triticale – were the most popular cover crops, planted by 73 percent of respondents.
• Legumes, which could include clover, winter pea, vetch and others, were planted by 55 percent of respondents.
• 63 percent of the cover crop users said they had never received financial assistance or payments to grow cover crops.
• Yield benefits rose as farmers reported more years of experience with cover crops.
• The top perceived challenges for cover crops were noted as the time required to plant and manage cover crops, terminating cover crops, and selecting the right cover crop varieties.

Cover crops provide numerous benefits in addition to yield increases. They help improve soil health by reducing erosion, increasing soil organic matter content, improving air and water movement through soil, reducing soil compaction, capturing and recycling nutrients in the soil profile and managing soil moisture to promote biological nitrogen fixation.

This is significant as farmers reported the three benefits they desired most from cover crops were increased soil organic matter, reducing erosion and reducing compaction.

“Cover crops mimic what Mother Nature was doing before man began farming. She always kept herself covered and always had some kind of live roots year round. The closer we can mimic this the better our soils will become over time,” said one survey respondent.

Farmers who had four or more years of experience with cover crops saw a higher increase in bushels per acre than those with zero to three years of experience, most likely due to an increase in organic matter.

Another survey respondent commented: “Cover crops are not a one-time practice but a long-term system. This system has enormous benefits while the individual practices making up the system are hard to quantify in the short run.”

Farmers interested in learning more about soil health-building cover crops and soil health management systems should visit www.nrcs.usda.gov/GetStarted or a local USDA service center.

Illinois Farmer Ralph Upton knows first-hand how much soil and crop yields can improve with proper use of cover crops. Upton has been using cover crops since the late 1990s. NRCS photo by Ciji Taylor.

RCPP to Help Improve Water Quality in Lake Erie, Other American Waterbodies

From USDA:

Posted by Krysta Harden, Agriculture Deputy Secretary, on January 16, 2015 at 3:00 PM

The Maumee River (shown here) flows into the Maumee Bay of Lake Erie at the city of Toledo, OH. USDA photo.

In the first wave of funding through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), 70 percent of the 100-plus projects focused on providing for clean and abundant water. Of these many projects, one in the Great Lakes region is poised to do an excellent job in engaging and empowering an army of partners.  The Tri-State Western Lake Erie Basin Phosphorous Reduction Initiative is a multi-state project that brings together more than 40 partnering organizations from Michigan, Ohio and Indiana to reduce the runoff of phosphorous into the waterways in the western basin of Lake Erie.

The lake has suffered from nutrient pollution for years, including last year’s water crisis that left 400,000 residents in the Toledo, Ohio area without water to drink, bathe or cook. Today, Michigan Senator and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Debbie Stabenow and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown visited with the many diverse organizations making this project possible. From providing clean drinking water to employing thousands of people in the tourism industry, the health of Lake Erie affects nearly every aspect of life in the region.

With RCPP, partners are in the driver’s seat with technical and financial help from NRCS.  State, local and regional partners join with agricultural producers to achieve specific, measurable natural resource results.

In this case, a large group of partners told us why more conservation work was needed in the western basin of Lake Erie – and how they could do it in an innovative way that leveraged additional funds and brought a wide variety of partners to the table. This project plans to target funding to watersheds most in need, meaning the streams and rivers that have a large impact on water quality in the lake.

This new investment in the western Lake Erie watershed builds on 10 years of work done by the Western Lake Erie Basin Partnership, a group of 14 federal, state, and local government agencies and non-profit organizations.  Many of these partners helped develop the RCPP proposal and will contribute both their cash and in-kind services to the project.

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service administers RCPP, which directs funding to state-level and multi-state projects as well as projects in critical conservation areas. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack selected eight critical conservation areas, including the Great Lakes Region. It’s so important that we protect the water quality of Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes.

America’s Great Lakes — Erie, Superior, Michigan, Huron and Ontario — hold 21 percent of the world’s surface fresh water and host habitat for a variety of fish and wildlife species of concern. They provide drinking water for more than 40 million people and economic benefits from fishing and recreation. The Great Lakes Region is also a major agricultural area, with more than 55 million acres of land under production.

With RCPP and other Farm Bill programs, USDA is working to accelerate conservation work on private lands. We look forward to the contributions this project will make to the region as well as other efforts by farmers in the regions.