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Cover crop survey asks about planting green

A national survey of farmers who used cover crops last year found that a good number ‘planted green,’ “Twenty-percent of our respondents said that they planted 80 to 100% of their cover crop acres green.”

Mike Smith with the Conservation Technology Information Center says it’s well known that 2019 was an incredibly wet year for many growers.

Whether they planned to plant green or not, he says, about a third found seeding directly into their cover crops helped with management.

“Thirty-three percent said that they thought that it had, overall, made their management of their cover crop and their cash crop simpler. Another 30% saying it was just about similarly complex to terminating ahead of time.”

A few respondents said management was more difficult. Smith tells Brownfield more than half of those surveyed said planting green allowed them to plant at the same time as their other fields or those of their neighbors or at least one day earlier.