The Northeast Cover Crops Council: Encouraging and Supporting Cover Crop Use in the Northeast US.

Cover crops help to address some of the key challenges facing agriculture including nutrient pollution, herbicide resistant weeds, and climate change by decreasing loss of N and P to the environment, decreasing erosion, suppressing weeds, and providing habitat and food sources for beneficial organisms including pollinators. A group of researchers, farmers, and agricultural service providers from Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont convened on March 31-April 1, 2016 to create the Northeast Cover Crops Council (NECCC). The NECCC will serve as a central clearinghouse for the extensive cover crop research which has been conducted in the Northeast. It will identify knowledge gaps to assist researchers in collaborating across state and institution lines to find solutions to the problems that make it difficult for farmers to grow cover crops. It will determine best management practices to maximize the benefits accrued through the use of cover crops. It will serve as a network through which farmers can find immediate answers to their cover crop questions. It will provide resources, including a website and a suite of cover crop decision tools. The first tool, based on the Midwest Cover Crops Council online selector tool, is slated for development starting in the fall of 2016. Through such activities, resources, and tools the NECCC will encourage cover crop adoption and support cover crop use in the Northeast.