Despite the numerous environmental benefits associated with cover crop use, such as reducing erosion, improving infiltration, mitigating nutrient loading in surface waters, and improving soil health, many farmers in the Midwestern United States are still reluctant to include cover crops in their production practices.
Using experimental agronomic data from six location-years in Iowa (Marcos et al. 2023) and a partial budget framework, Plastina et al. (2023) evaluated the annual private net returns to cereal rye as a winter cover crop in the no-till corn phase of an integrated corn-soybean and cow-calf system in Iowa.
Read the full article by Dr. Alejandro Plastina in the March 2024 Ag Decision Maker newsletter.
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