Research Demonstrates Cover Crops as Carbon Negative
Truterra (a division of Land O’ Lakes) and the Soil Water Conservation Society (SWCS) have reported the early findings from a three year on-farm research study. The focus was to evaluate cover crops and the practice’s effect on soil heath, soil erosion, carbon sequestration, and return on investment.
The field-scale study spanned 2,400 acres in three states: Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. The research compared cover crops to conventional practices.
Two of the key findings are:
- Cover crops sequestered nearly three times as much greenhouse gas as the check fields. And acres with cover crops were carbon negative
- Sheet and rill erosion was cut in half. Wind erosion was reduced by 72%
“I’m really happy with the improvement in soil health I’ve seen so far while maintaining my fields’ overall profitability,” said Clint Luellen, an Iowa farmer who participated. “There can be a lot of unknowns in the cover crop world, so it’s been very valuable to work closely with the conservation agronomists at my ag retailer Heartland Cooperative to evaluate all of the data from the trials to see what’s going to work for our operations and make changes to continue to improve the performance of my fields with both the environment and profitability in mind.”
The trials were made possible with partnerships with three Truterra-aligned retailer cooperatives Alliance Ag and Grain, Frontier Cooperative and Heartland Cooperative, and the results were measured with analytics from the Truterra sustainability tool. The fields with cover crops were used improved the sustainability score by 8 points.
This research was part of a $1.5 million USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Conservation Innovation Grant On-Farm Trials (CIG-OFT) that was awarded in 2019. The research also includes nutrient management trials, and it will continue for the next two years.
“Truterra is committed to creating opportunities for farmers to better feed a growing world through climate-smart practices. The results from this three-year trial will give farmers the resources and agronomic support to test drive cover crops and see how they can help build soil health, reduce erosion and sequester carbon,” said Tom Ryan, president of Truterra. “We’re encouraged by these preliminary results, which indicate that cover crops can provide environmental and economic benefits to a farm’s operations, the environment and the community.”
