Business Management

There are several management issues to consider when using cover crops. Here you can find a wide range of resources covering farm management and budgeting for cover crops, including crop insurance, pricing, and diversification.

Cover Crops Best Management Practices

Cover crops can provide a positive return for producers in the form of improved soil health, nutrient fixation and cycling, together with weed control.

Using cover crops can be very challenging as there are FSA cover crop guidelines and numerous other things to consider. First is to decide what your major goals are for using cover crops. This decision will affect various other issues such as choice of cover crop, whether to use cover crop mixtures, how cover crops will fit into the overall cropping system and farm management plan. Other issues include when and how to terminate or suppress the cover crop as well as disease and pest management.

There are several options when it comes to buying cover crop seeds. The most secure method is to buy cover crop seed from a seed company. Bin-run seed is another option. Then, there’s the choice between planting cover crops as a monoculture or whether using cover crop mixtures is more cost-effective. Plenty of resources are available online, such as Penn State Extensions Farming for Success workshops, but there’s also the option of consulting with a certified crop advisers.

Cover crops can play an important role in crop rotation and also enable producers to practice diversification. Diversification allows producers to spread the downside risk over more than one enterprise. If you’re planting corn, for example, grazing cover crops helps reduce soil compaction, nutrient management and improves soil health. Cover crops can also play an important role in a diversified grazing system.

Cover Crop Assessments

Penn State Extension educators are always available to help producers when it comes to assessing your crops. The Cover Crop Walk workshop provides for useful discussion with the host farmer together with the opportunity to walk demo plots, take measurements, and assess the success of different methods.

Cover Crop Field Days provide opportunities to receive expert instruction on cover crop research in field and vegetable cropping systems.

During a Cover Crop Plot Tour, you’re able to see what cover crops producers can plant in August, following wheat or early corn silage.

Cover Crops and Farm Business Management

On this page, Penn State Extension experts have compiled business management resources for crop producers. Some of them are related to marketing their crops. Effective marketing can have a big impact on the profitability of a business and it may mean there’s no need to seek outside funding, such as the Pennsylvania Small Business Advantage Grant for BMPs.

Crop insurance information is also available in this section. Farmers using cover crops can benefit from crop insurance to financially recover from natural disasters and volatile market fluctuations. Heavy rain, for example, can hold up the planting of corn and soybean. Producers can cover any subsequent losses by making a prevented planting claim.