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USDA Cover Crop Chart

 

The USDA has developed a decision aid that helps farmers interested in using cover crops.

USDA research soil scientist says the Cover Crop Chart is simply a pdf file listing 58 different cover crops.

“It’s sort of a visual interface of all the different cover crops that are possible that can be used in different types of environments.  Each crop has a hotlink to an individual page that provides all kinds of detailed information about the crop.”

He tells Brownfield even though USDA is working with more than 20 years of cover crop data, research in the area is still in its infancy.

“Things haven’t really ramped up on this until about the last ten years and there’s so much to learn.”

Liebig says the scientific understanding of various cover crop mixtures is in its nascent phase.