DES MOINES, Iowa — Called cover crops, they top the list of tasks U.S. farmers are told will build healthy soil, help the environment and fight climate change. Yet after years of incentives and ...

Maybe after you finish your vegetable harvest, you mentally say, “I’m done this year,” and wait to start again next year. But a cover crop could benefit you in several ways. By researching now, you ...

Aaron Lehman is the president of the Iowa Farmers Union and is a fifth-generation farmer from central Iowa. Iowa is a nationwide leader in a conservation practice known as cover cropping. For nearly a ...

Everybody seems to be talking about cover crops. Rightfully so because, managed correctly, they can provide environmental benefits. Higher yield? Well, maybe, but probably not, at least in the near ...

A field planted with cereal rye, one of the most common cover crops in Iowa. Photo by Ally Larson/Iowa State University. AMES, Iowa – Planting ground cover in fields between cash crop growing seasons ...

‘Prosperity,’ customer pressure help stir cover crop interest The ‘yo-yo’ principle of managing cover crops Is USDA overpromoting cover crops? This is the first part of a four-part series examining ...

Farmers see a variety of benefits when using cover crops in their fields and home gardeners can do the same. “Having living tissue, living plants on the garden the whole year increases soil health, ...

Planting ground cover in fields between cash crop growing seasons is an effective way to prevent farmland from losing soil carbon from erosion, a factor that's underestimated in considering the carbon ...