cover crops | Field 2 Field

April 27, 2020April 27, 2020

Prevented planting and cover crops: 2019 Lessons Learned

Prevented planting, cover crops, and a wet fall taught farmers across the Midwest a lot of lessons going into 2020. The South Dakota NRCS has put together a short film

Watch this 3 1/2-minute video which is part of a new mini series for #agriculture.

In this discussion, farmers and specialists go over some of the lessons learned in 2020.

Wet August 2019 conditions prevented some cover crops from being planted; farmers were left weighing up terminating covers in the fall or leaving them to overwinter and provide spring growth; the perspective of experienced cover croppers on their attitudes to reseeding of covers (e.g., buckwheat) and how they deal with them.

prevented planting — Cover crops and prevent plant acres in 2019; the South Dakota NRCS documented some lessons learned from last year and how they apply to the 2020 crop year. (Photo from NPR.org(

“Growing Resilience” is intended to help farmers and ranchers gain insights into 2020 crop year thinking from eight farmers and several technical specialists from the South Dakota NRCS and SDSU. Filmed in late-February 2020 in Mitchell and Crooks, SD, these recorded conversations offer candid comments on issues they faced on 2019 Prevented Planting acres, and how their soil improvement journey makes their fields more resilient.

These short video stories provide farmers and ranchers with ideas and options to consider now and for future growing seasons. Additional resources, including technical guidelines, are available on our website at www.sd.nrcs.usda.gov > Soils > Growing Resilience with Soil Health.Specialists with the USDA NRCS are respecting social distancing and are available by phone or email for answering questions. Please visit farmers.gov/service-center-locator to find the latest COVID19 operational status and a directory with your local office and employee contact information.

Please feel free to “like and share” on your favorite social media!

Initiated by the USDA NRCS with a Partnership Work Group.
Produced by the University of South Carolina in collaboration
with the USDA NRCS serving South Dakota.

The views and opinions of the farmer participants expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

June 20, 2019June 20, 2019

Prevent plant acres with cover crops can be utilized on Sept. 1

Cover Crops might be a really good idea for empty prevent plant acres in farm country. The U.S. Department of Agriculture just announced that farmers who planted cover crops on prevented plant acres will be permitted to hay, graze or chop those fields earlier than November this year. USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) adjusted the 2019 final haying and grazing date from November 1 to September 1 to help farmers who couldn’t plant crops because of flooding and excess rainfall this spring.

“We recognize farmers were greatly impacted by some of the unprecedented flooding and excessive rain this spring, and we made this one-year adjustment to help farmers with the tough decisions they are facing this year,” said Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation Bill Northey. “This change will make good stewardship of the land easier to accomplish while also providing an opportunity to ensure quality forage is available for livestock this fall.”

RMA has also determined that silage, haylage and baleage should be treated in the same manner as haying and grazing for this year. Producers can hay, graze or cut cover crops for silage, haylage or baleage on prevented plant acres on or after September 1 and still maintain eligibility for their full 2019 prevented planting indemnity.

“These adjustments have been made for 2019 only,” said RMA Administrator Martin Barbre. “RMA will evaluate the prudence of a permanent adjustment moving forward.”

Other USDA Programs
Other USDA agencies are also assisting producers with delayed or prevented planting. USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is extending the deadline to report prevented plant acres in select counties, and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is holding special sign-ups for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program in certain states to help with planting cover crops on impacted lands. Contact your local FSA and NRCS offices to learn more.

More Information
Read our frequently asked questions to learn more about prevented plant.

June 6, 2019June 6, 2019

MDA Issues Advisory on Cover Crop Seed

Minnesota Seed Law must be followed on prevented planting acres

Minnesota farmers may be in the market for more cover crop seed than in previous years. Poor planting conditions this spring are forcing some farmers to make decisions on prevented planting. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) wants to remind farmers about the legal requirements for selling and buying seed in Minnesota, which does include cover crop seed.

MDA says it has seen several issues in past years that violate Minnesota’s Seed Law. Buying grain from an elevator for the purpose of sowing is not legal. It is also illegal to brown bag or sell grain out of a bin. Furthermore, all seed sold in the state must be labeled.

“Minnesota’s Seed Law restricts these activities for numerous reasons, ” said Denise Thiede, MDA’s Seed Unit Supervisor. “Farmers could be bringing in weeds through unlabeled and untested seed, or they may not be get the type or quality of seed they paid for.”

In addition, almost all seed varieties have some form of intellectual property protection that restricts the use and sale of the variety under the federal Plant Variety Protection Act. Violating this act can lead to significant fines for both the seller and the buyer.

If farmers are buying seed to sow on their land, the MDA offers the following advice:

Make sure the seed has a label.
Confirm the cover crop seed has been tested for noxious weed seeds, including Palmer amaranth.
Make sure that it is a legal sale by asking the seller if they have the legal authority to sell the product.
Ask about the variety of seed. A variety protected by the Plant Variety Protection Act must be sold by variety name and may be required to be sold as a class of certified seed.

More information on the requirements for selling seed in Minnesota can be found at on the MDA’s website (www.mda.state.mn.us/seed).

October 18, 2018October 19, 2018

Organic Farming adding acres and operations

Organic farming is growing to meet the increasing demand for its products. A report from Mercaris, an organic industry data service, says the U.S. now has roughly 6.5 million acres of organically certified land. The number of certified organic farms is three percent higher this year than in 2017. Laura Batcha, CEO/Executive Director of the Organic Trade Association, says that great is news.

“We always welcome seeing an increase in U.S. acres dedicated to organic farming,” Batcha said. “It’s something very important to see an increase in the overall value chain and the sustainability of the industry, as a whole.

“We’ve been investing in some particular initiatives that have an emphasis on increasing production in terms of row crops, including row crops and small grains,” Batcha added. “It’s really nice to see the number of acres has grown in the last year. Our members worked on projects to help to increase knowledge transfer that would support farmers transitioning their acres (to organic), so it’s nice to see that particular crop types and geographies are showing an increase.”

Some of those geographies include states along the East Coast, through the Corn Belt, and through the West. Those areas reported the largest gains in total certified operations. Just those three regions alone added 430 certified organic farming operations. Batcha is pleased that organic is spreading to different locations.

Batcha said the goal is to keep a nice and steady growth in the number of organic areas and operations across the country. That’s not necessarily an easy thing to do because there’s no one way of doing things in organic production that applies to all products.

“It’s tough to talk about keys to growing the industry as a whole because you have to look at it from a crop-specific perspective,” she said. “You also need to look at things from a regional perspective. What works for specialty crops in California won’t be the same thing that works for small grains in the Great Plains.

“The industry is focusing on several things right now,” Batcha added. “Organic regulations require crop rotation and cover-cropping. Organic farms have longer and more complex crop rotations (than traditional farming). What is needed is for crops in different rotations to have access to markets. It’s an emphasis the whole supply chain is looking at. Some of our farms may have six or seven different crops and we want healthy markets for all of them.

“The other thing the (Mercaris) report calls out is improving transparency in terms of data and statistics in the organic industry,” Batcha said. “But there are still gaps. The report recommended the same thing that our members have already brought to the Department of Agriculture. The recommendation we want is to see that the reporting of acreage from the certified agencies to the USDA to be a mandatory data transfer on an annual basis. It’s not only important for good statistics that inform policy choices, as well as farmer decision-making out in their fields.”

There are now 17,648 U.S. farms certified as compliant with the USDA National Organic Farming Program standards for organic row crop production. Total organic acres increased from 6.4 million acres in 2017.

The data company calls the report the only trusted information source on organic farmland statistics because the Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service will not be issuing data on organic acreage for 2018.