Agronomic advisers are increasingly recommending the use of cover crops to their farmer customers and helping them find success – especially when they have experience with cover crops on their own ground.
That’s just one of the key findings in a new survey from the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC), Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE), and the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA). A report on the survey was released by the three groups on Wednesday.
Specifically, 22.3% of the advisers who said they use cover crops themselves reported between 25% and 50% of their clients are using covers, compared to a 9.1% rate of adoption among clients of advisers who did not personally use cover crops.
“Advisers play a key role in informing farmers about cover crops and providing technical assistance to help them succeed with covers,” says Rob Myers, director of the University of Missouri Center for Regenerative and regional director of extension programs for North Central Region SARE, in a prepared statement. “Understanding their attitudes toward cover crops, how they get their information, and how they perceive cover crop benefits will help guide efforts to support those advisers.”
More than 650 farm advisers from across the U.S. participated in the survey. Among the key findings:
The farm advisers surveyed used a wide range of information sources to learn about cover crops. Advisers who reported that they learned about cover crops on the job rather than through formal academic or training channels preferred training sessions (63.9%) and webinars (57.4%) for learning new cover crop insights, but they also liked learning from farmers one-on-one (58.3%) and by visiting field trials (30.6%).
A Valuable Weed-Management Tool
How to use cover crops as a weed management tool is one of the best key learnings Byron Hendrix says he’s gained from helping farmers adopt their use in Illinois corn and soybeans.
“Because herbicide resistance is becoming such an issue, we’ve seen cover crops come in, and they’ve helped tremendously at out-competing these resistant weeds like Palmer amaranth (pigweed) and common waterhemp, says Hendrix, a certified crop adviser and owner of Agronomy 1st LLC and an Illinois Soy Envoy. “Once we kill that cover crop off successfully, we have a very clean looking field to plant into. So that’s a great tool that’s come about, and we’re getting better at using cover crops. That’s the key, right?”
Hendrix says he recalls when cover crops were initially adopted by farmers in his area, they were unsure of how to use them effectively. “We didn’t know exactly, are they for weed resistance? Or, are we utilizing them for more of a nitrogen benefit in the soil, you know, that type of thing?”
That same uncertainty was an issue for agronomic advisers, and it became less of an issue once advisers understood how to make cover crops work effectively, says Ryan Heiniger, executive director for the CTIC.
“This survey opened a window into how cover crops fit into crop consulting businesses and other advisory services,” says Heiniger, in a prepared statement. “We also observed that seeing is believing, which is borne out by the fact that approximately 70% of the respondents who farm themselves use cover crops on their own operations, and those cover crop users are more inclined to advise their clients on the practice.”
Higher Adoption Rates Are Expected
In addition, a majority of the farm advisers (56.9%) who participated in the survey said they expect to see cover crop acreage continue to increase. That’s true for Hendrix and his retail business.
“We’ve got multiple great things happening with cover crops now, and more and more people are actually implementing those practices,” Hendrix says.
Looking to the future, survey participants said they expect farmers to continue increasing use of cover crop mixes (46.7%) and trying ways of combining other soil health practices with cover crops (52.9%). The advisers said they expect a moderate amount of interest in newer cover crop topics like planting green (29.2%), grazing cover crops (32.2%) and others.
For more information on the CTIC/SARE/ASTA National Cover Crop Survey Report 2024-2025, visit SARE’s website.
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