Florida vegetable farmers who grow cover crops as a green manure between their cash crops anecdotally tout the health benefits, but a two-year study by University of Florida has provided the research to back it up. In a Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SSARE) On-Farm Research Grant, University of Florida soil health expert Jehangir (Jango) Bhadha shadowed the cover crop practices of eight farmers across the state to measure the benefits of using cover crops (mainly cow pea and sunn hemp) as a soil amendment and nutrient source for subsequent cash crops.

Warm season cover crops grow in the summer but die with the first frost while cool season species generally survive the winter. Major categories include brassicas, grasses, legumes, and other broadleaves with over 60 species. Read more in this article from Ohio's Country Journal.

Mitchell Hora walks to a field on his family’s southeast Iowa farm, where 5-inch-high soybeans grow in alternating rows with 4-foot-tall cereal rye. The 25-year-old admits that combining the two crops would make most farmers freak out. Read more in this article from The Hawk Eye (Burlington, IA).

If you’re on Twitter, you’ve likely seen a lot of buzz around wide-row corn (44-inch or 60-inch) with cover crops seeded between rows. The goal is to space the corn rows out to provide more light for the cover crops to establish and put on some biomass for grazing, attract pollinators or to add diversity to the system. Read more in this article from AgWeek.

When faced with a crop failure due to severe weather, or conditions prevent planting in the first place, seeding cover crops on these acres can help control weeds and protect soil from erosion as well as provide other soil health benefits. Trials from the University of Minnesota reveals which covers grow the most biomass the quickest.

Given the current dry conditions and the prospect that this may continue you may think that the last thing I would be wanting to talk about is planting cover crops. But cover crops can provide as many benefits in dry periods as they can wet periods, especially in fallow systems where there will not be a cash crop planted until next spring. Read more in this article from the Dodge City Daily Globe (Dodge City, KS).

Due to the increased demand for efficiency, farmers have had to pull more resources from the soil to make sure their production practices are as efficient as possible. The extra demand for resources from the soil has led to a decrease in overall soil health. Read more in this article from the Herald Journal News (Logan, UT).

Whether by airplane, spreader or toolbar, interseeding cover crops into cash crops is a trend that appears to be growing in popularity as a way for growers to accommodate weather challenges, increase crop diversity and boost soil health more efficiently. The Cover Crop Benchmark Study released this year by Cover Crop Strategies details some of the first in-depth data available in the ag industry on interseeding practices for U.S. farmers, including equipment utilized and planting timings that work for growers.

The prairies of south central Montana are really starting to come to life. Cali Rooney and her husband Tyler have been busy planting all of their warm season cover crops. These particular cover crop varieties must be planted in soil that consistently stays above 50 degrees, ideally. Read more in this article from the Lincoln Journal Star.

In 2016, Shawn Freeland to make a difficult decision. The 45-year-old Caputa, S.D., rancher attended a Grassland Coalition Grazing School. In addition to reducing his stocking density on rangeland, he no-till drilled a diverse cover crop mix on irrigated hay acres. Read more in this article from Farm Forum (Aberdeen, SD).