Cover Crop Road Show: A Strategy to Facilitate Discussion on Cover Crop Use in Southwest Kansas.

There is a growing interested from producers in southwest KS in growing cover crops and reducing fallow. Currently, NRCS offer programs that work with producers on incorporating cover crop into their cropping system and many producers are experimenting with cover crops on their own farm. Previous research done in Garden City from 2007 – 2016 found cover crops to be less profitable than fallow. However, producers continue to experiment and of such information about use of cover crops in southwest KS is source dependent. Therefore, a cover crop road show was organized by Ag county agents and extension specialist as a strategy to facilitate discussion on cover crop among, producers, university researchers and specialists, NRCS specialists and private industry on the use of cover crops. The road show involved stops at three producers’ farm that was centered on specific discussion around cover crops. Each stop consisted of the producer providing information on the use of cover crops, an expert presentation on a specific topic and a question and answer discussion session. The tour revealed that producers are optimistic about the benefits and creative in devising ways to use cover crops economically within their cropping system. The take away message from the tour and discussions was “start small, experiment on your own farm as not everything work on one farm will work on another.” The tour was a success with 90% of the participants reporting that they found the program to be very valuable and providing very useful information.