COVER CROPS
Grown between harvest in the fall and spring planting, cover crops have numerous benefits:
- they can help slow the flow of surface water off the fields
- take up extra nitrogen
- improve soil health with their root systems and biomass.
Several resources are available for cover crop management:
Improving Cash Crop Stand Establishment in Cover Crops - Iowa Soybean Association publication (PDF file)
Midwest Cover Crop Council website
Practical Farmers of Iowa website