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Benefits of cover crops on prevent plant acres

A nutrient research manager encourages farmers with prevent plant acres to try planting cover crops in those empty fields this year.  

“It’s a great year to try something new. If you have never done cover crops before, it is a great year to put something out there to just see how you like it, how it works with your equipment, how it works on your operation and how it works with your soil type.”

Shani Golovay with Illinois’ Nutrient Research and Education Council, or NREC, tells Brownfield cover crops can improve soil health, retain nitrogen and manage weeds in empty fields. Cover crops can also provide forage for livestock producers.

“I think economically you are going to find that you are coming out ahead with cover crops just to keep that field in reasonable condition for next spring.”

She says there is not much data about cover crops on prevent plant acres so NREC is making data collection on the topic a top priority this year.

“We certainly hope that we won’t need this data for another 20 years, but it would be nice if we had data from the 1993 flood.”

She encourages farmers who are planting cover crops on prevent plant acres or trying other innovative practices to reach out to NREC and help with data collection for future flood years.