Practical Farmers of Iowa recently released a cover-crop app that’s designed to help farmers locate cover-crop seed, services and suppliers in time for fall planting. The “Find Cover Crops” app is free to download and use. It’s available in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The app enables users to do several things.

Search by location or global-positioning system for at least 44 cover-crop seed dealers, seed-conditioning and custom-spraying services in Iowa and surrounding states.

Request aerial application, custom drilling and high-clearance seeding services from their phones or from their computer at findcovercrops.com.

Access advice and management recommendations – including embedded how-to videos – for seeding, grazing and terminating cover crops.

Precisely identify the boundaries of fields to be cover cropped using the app’s “Find My Field” feature. It enables users to search for, mark and send images of a field to businesses or to Practical Farmers of Iowa for cost-share purposes.

Practical Farmers worked with North Carolina-based Onyx Ocean Technologies, a Black woman-owned mobile app and web design company, to develop the app. The app was developed based on what farmers have told Practical Farmers of Iowa about their biggest questions and challenges with cover crops, said Sarah Carlson, strategic initiatives director at Practical Farmers of Iowa. Visit practicalfarmers.org or contact michael@practicalfarmers.org for more information.