October 2020 - 8

Setting the stage
Growers use cover crops for soil building
Grass strips between nursery stock, Harford County, Maryland. Photos: SARE
By Stephen Kloosterman
Associate Editor
Cover crops are widely used in
agriculture to strengthen soils and keep
weeds away, but a recent survey showed
fruit and vegetable growers are using them
differently than other farmers.
The 2019-2020 National Cover Crop
Survey was conducted by the nonprofit
Conservation Technology Information
Center (CTIC), with financial support
from the Sustainable Agriculture Research
and Education (SARE) program and the
American Seed Trade Association (ASTA).
Horticultural growers - defined as those
with fruit, nut and vegetable operations in
the U.S. - made up 19.2% of the survey's
nearly 1,200 respondents.
Vegetable crops were the most common
enterprise among growers who said
horticulture crops represented at least 10%
of their farm income; although a minority
of the growers said they grew annual fruits
such as strawberries and melons, nuts,
grapes or other perennial fruits.
Horticultural growers reported that
cover crops can be profitable - 35%
reported a moderate increase in net profit
(defined as an increase of 5% or more),
while another 23% reported a minor
increase in net profit (2-4% increase). Only
4% observed a minor (2-4%) reduction in
net profit after the costs of buying cover
crops seed and planting it. No respondents
reported a moderate loss in net profit.
The survey asked farmers why they
planted cover crops, allowing them to
choose more than one reason. Nearly all
of horticultural growers (94%) said they
grew cover crops to improve soil structure
or soil health. Other top responses were
improving weed management (81%),
reducing erosion (71%) and improving
water infiltration (63%).
Horticultural growers were more likely
than commodity farmers to use cover crops
for biological controls, with nearly half of
horticultural growers using cover crops to
harbor beneficial insects, and 43% using
them to improve insect or disease control.
Horticultural growers also terminate
cover crops differently than most other
growers.
" When we think of commodity
farmers, most of them are spray-killing
their cover crop, but here if you look at
horticultural users, less than a quarter are
Pumpkins growing after planting into rye cover crop in western Maryland.
using sprays, " said Rob Myers, regional
director of Extension programs for North
Central SARE. " About (a quarter) or
equal is doing tillage or mowing. A fair
number do have winter kill crops similar
to commodity farmers. "
A few horticultural growers expressed
faith that cover crops were worth the effort,
even if they didn't know the value in dollars.
" I don't think my poorly drained,
clayey land would remain productive for
annual vegetables without aggregation
provided by cover crops, " one said,
according to the report.
Another added that benefits of cover
crops were difficult to quantify, " but in an
organic setting, fixed (nitrogen) is a huge
cost savings and soil improvements, soil
carbon, etc. are all very valuable and drive
our entire farming system. "
The report also noted that vegetable
growers use cover crops aggressively " to
manage nematodes and soil pathogens that
threaten their cash crops, " and use different
tillage practices than commodity growers.
" The permanent systems and high
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traffic of orchards and vineyards may
call for unique cover crop mixes and
management, " the report added.
Among all growers, the most popular
cover crop was radish (used by 54% of
respondents), followed by cereal rye, oats,
crimson clover, turnip, other clovers,
rapeseed/canola, annual ryegrass, winter
pea, hairy vetch, cowpea, winter wheat,
sunn hemp, winter barley and triticale.
Almost half of the respondents said they
had increased the number of species in their
cover crop mixes over time; only 8% had
decreased the number of species in the mix.
A variety of financial incentives are
available for cover crops. Of the survey
respondents, 189 farmers reported
receiving payments from the Conservation
Stewardship Program (CSP) while 151
received money from the Environmental
Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), which
are run by the USDA's Natural Resources
Conservation Service. An additional 129
growers received payments from a state or
local soil and water conservation district,
and 30 received payments from a private
company to plant cover crops or use
regenerative practices.
The survey developers noted that
despite the heavy spring rainfalls that
delayed plantings in much of the country
during 2019, more than 90% of farmers
reported that cover crops allowed them
to plant earlier or at the same time as
non-cover-cropped fields.
" Farmers are using cover crops for a
variety of reasons and many have tried new
approaches to cover cropping, " said Mike
Smith, who managed the national survey
for CTIC. " This year's survey also indicated
that some of the concerns that many
growers have had about the effects of cover
crops on planting dates in a wet year turned
out not to be true - in fact, in many cases,
cover crops helped farmers plant earlier in
the very wet spring of 2019. "
About half of the survey respondents'
seed costs (not counting planting or ground
preparations costs) ran $11-20 per acre.
Jane DeMarchi, ASTA vice president
of government and regulatory affairs,
said she was pleased that most farmers,
according to the survey, were buying
commercially-grown seeds from seed
companies or retailers.
" From a seed industry perspective, the
more we know about the future cover crop
trends and farmers' goals in using cover
crops, the better prepared we can be to
serve this growing market, " she said. VGN
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October 2020

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