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Naig touts Iowa’s cover crop adoption

Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig says the state’s farmers are adopting cover crops at a record pace.

“We have now for the first time enrolled 1 million acres in our cover crop cost-share in the state of Iowa.”

He says that’s up from 700,000 acres enrolled in state cost-share programs in 2025.

“We have been able to secure additional funding through the support of resources that the Legislature has allocated, but also the governor has allocated some of the remaining federal dollars to this initiative because we have seen such strong demand.”

Naig says the state has been encouraging farmers to plant more cover crops to help improve water quality. He says in just the Greater Des Moines Watershed, 300,000 acres were enrolled into cover crop programs in 2026.

Naig made his comments during a press conference at the 2026 Farm Progress Show.