Adopting Cover Crops for Soil Health and Grazing in Irrigated Cropping Systems of Southern Idaho.

Planting cover crops is an emerging practice in southern Idaho. The region is a moderately windy area along the Snake River plain, stretching from Wyoming to Oregon, and wind erosion is a factor in soil conservation plans. Soil health is a major initiative advocated by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). In an effort to help producers adopt cover crop practices in southern Idaho, the University of Idaho Extension and Twin Falls Soil and Water Conservation District conducted a two-year multi-species cover crop demonstration project. The project was conducted on several fields throughout the region of south central Idaho to determine cover crop feasibility within existing farming practices and to determine if cover crops could provide an extension to the grazing season as a side benefit to producer’s, thereby adding animals to the landscape as part of the soil health practices and helping to offset the costs of growing a cover crop.