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Why Aren't More Farmers Planting Cover Crops?
No-Till Living Legend Randall Reeder explains the long-term advantages of cover crops
In an old story, the marketing vice president for a dog food company addressed the sales force from across the country
He asked, “Do we have the best ingredients in our dog food?”
The salespeople in unison yelled, “Yes!”
“Do we keep stores fully stocked with our dog food?”
“Yes!”
“Do we offer the best value to our customer?”
“Yes!”
“Then why aren’t we selling more dog food?”
A voice roared from the back row, “Because them dogs don’t like it!”
My question today is, if cover crops are so good, why don’t more farmers like them?
The Census of Agriculture shows U.S. cropland area planted to cover crops in 2022 was 17,985,831 acres. That means cover crops were planted on 4.7% of total cropland in 2022.
Why is adoption of cover crops so low? Why haven’t we reached 50% instead of 5%?
Little Initial Press. Cover crops first showed up in the April 1973 issue of No-Till Farmer in an article that listed a roundup of no-till ideas among western Kentucky growers. It was at least 20 years later that cover crops began to be recognized as a complement (or catalyst) for continuous no-till success. By around 2000, a few no-till farmers were experimenting with cover crops.
“Why haven’t we reached 50% adoption of cover crops instead of 5%?”
Cover crops were not even mentioned in the 1992 edition of “Conservation Tillage Systems and Management,” a book published by ag engineers from 12 Midwest universities. The second edition in…
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