Cover Crops - Tools for Sustainability in the NE USA.

The 2012 ag census indicates that cover crops were used on about 2.6% of cropland in the US, but the NE region had cover crops on 9.2% of its cropland. Very few states had cover crops on more than 10% of their cropland, and all of those were in the NE region (or Virginia). The leading state in terms of percentage of cropland with cover crops was Maryland by a wide margin with 23%. The reason for this is rather simple: public policy backed up by dollars. Maryland has offered increasing levels of subsidies (up to $235/ha) for planting cover crops in a program aimed entirely at reducing nitrogen loading from cropland to the Chesapeake Bay. Meanwhile educational and commercial efforts in Pennsylvania and New York also promoted increasing cover crop use, but focused more on soil quality and farm profitability. The most widely used cover crop is cereal rye, but others such as forage radish, triticale, and various legumes are becoming increasingly important. One of the most critical cover crop challenges in the region is the ability to plant cover crops early – preferably in late summer, so as to obtain significant growth and benefits during the fall. This challenge becomes more difficult the farther north one goes in the region as fall growing degree days decline. Although some benefits are captured from spring biomass growth, they generally delay cash crop planting and only partially make up for the minimal biomass present in fall and winter. Dairy farmers are integrating cover crops with livestock by grazing or harvesting cover crops for silage or greenchop. Farmers and researchers are working together to create solutions with zoned multispecies cover crops, species mixtures, fall replant nitrate tests and alternative methods of seeding and terminating cover crops.