The Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) has released its spring survey on cover crops, providing new information about cover crop adoption.

According to CTIC, “insight from 2,020 farmers from across the country reflected enthusiasm for cover crops and—for the fourth year in a row—found a yield boost in corn and soybeans following cover crops.”

Among findings of the study:

• Acreage planted to cover crops continued its steady rise among survey participants, reaching an average of 298 acres per farm in 2015 and projected to grow to a mean of 339 acres in 2016. Those figures are more than double the acreage survey participants said they planted in 2011.
• In soybeans, the average yield gain increased from 0.1 bushel per acre after a single year in cover crops to 2.4 bushels after four years of cover crops.
• A majority of respondents—52 percent—reported that their soybean yields always or often rise after a cover crop of cereal rye; less than 4 percent said their yields sometimes or always decreased after rye.
• Cereal rye cover crops also proved helpful in other ways, with 82 percent of farmers reporting that the rye helped with weed management—including 26 percent who found it also helped with tough herbicide-resistant weeds.

The survey was conducted in March 2016 by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program and the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) with help from the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) and Purdue University. The full report is available here.