A new cover crop, Nuseed Carinata, set to launch this fall in the south, should pique the interest of farmers looking to boost their bottom line in between main food crops. Nuseed is targeting Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and the Carolinas for its debut in the U.S.

Over the past decade, fall cover crop adoption has grown in the U.S., according to data from USDA's Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS).

Besides building healthy soil, living roots are the tool to fix marginal lands. Salt-affected soils are an example of a hard-to-fix marginal land situation in South Dakota. There are annual and perennial plants that can tolerate more soil salts

The seed mixture options for full and late-season grazing could include cool-season cereals (oats, barley, triticale), warm-season grasses (sorghum-sudan, sudangrass, pearl millet), brassicas (turnips, radishes, kale), broadleaf plants (sunflowers, buckwheat) and legumes (forage peas, clovers, vetch).

With cover crops growing in popularity, it’s not uncommon to see a field full of green in early April. Planting corn or soybeans into rye or other winter crops has some benefits. However, recent research from Iowa State University suggests not terminating cover crops ahead of planting could bring more disease and pests that may overwinter or start early.

Field trials of a new cover crop, CoverCress, are in its third year at the Illinois State University Farm and multiple benefits are being realized as intended.

Cover crops can offer a number of benefits to a cropping system including increased biodiversity, crop/livestock integration, erosion control, or water management. One of the greatest risks to cover cropping is failure to establish, and in North Dakota that often is the result of insufficient moisture. What can be done to reduce the risk of cover cropping?

Forage sorghum, sorghum x sudan, sudangrass, millets, and teffgrass have allowed for risk management in the past but have been especially depended on in recent years for emergency forage. A common rotation that has been adopted is Corn Silage-Winter Cereal-Summer Annual, and summer annuals also being used following spring cereals. Selection of summer annual types and management practices should not be overlooked.