News
Northey encouraged by cover crop usage
Photo courtesy Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship
Iowa ag secretary Bill Northey says he’s encouraged by a poll that shows increased usage of cover crops by Iowa farmers.
The Iowa State University poll, conducted in the spring of 2016, showed 20 percent of respondents planted cover crops in 2015. Another 33 percent indicated they might use them in the future.
Northey says those numbers are encouraging, especially when compared to the number of farmers using cover crops just a few years ago.
In an online poll conducted in January of this year, on behalf of the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA), nearly 50 percent of Iowa soybean farmers said they planted cover crops in 2016. According to ISA, that was a 20 percent increase from the previous year and more than triple the adoption in 2013.
Add Comment