U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced the third and final tranche of 2019 Market Facilitation Program (MFP) payments. The payments will begin to show up in farmers’ bank accounts by the end of this week.

Although cover crops are becoming more mainstream, there are still those growers out there who are resistant to the idea, according to Pennsylvania cover crop expert Steve Groff. (Courtesy of Cover Crop Innovators)

After a year of difficult weather and low commodity prices, farmers everywhere are cutting back on costs. At the Conservation Tillage Conference (CTC) in December, many growers looked at the economics of reduced tillage/no-till and cover crops, and whether or not those management practices really pay off.

If you raise corn and soybeans, cover cropping could help you increase profits, but not right away, according to Rob Myers, regional director of Extension programs for the USDA-NIFA North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program. Myers is with University of Missouri. He presented “The Bottom Line with Cover Crops: Evaluating Their Economic Impact on Corn and Soybean Production” as a recent webinar hosted by Purdue University Center for Food and Agriculture Business, Cornell University Cooperative Extension, American Farmland Trust, Wood Soil & Water Conservation District and IPM Institute.

Illinois is still two centuries away from hitting towards its goal of planting enough cover crops to make a significant dent in its nutrient pollution problem in waterways. That's according to a coalition of environmental groups responding to the state's recently-released biennial Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy report.

Aliceville farmer Annie Dee, who runs the Dee River Ranch in Pickens County, is one of a growing number of farmers who are signed up to get paid to sequester carbon in the soil using what are being called regenerative farm techniques.