Despite significant investment and attention, cover crop adoption across the Corn Belt remains relatively low. While the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) invests billions of dollars annually in conservation programs, much of that funding goes toward support payments rather than technical assistance, and some studies show that payments alone are not enough to sustain these practices.
Marin Skidmore, an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois, notes that other hurdles to conservation adoption include both the expense and the learning curve.
“As you’re trying to manage new residue and just relearn your system with new practices incorporated into it,” Skidmore shares. “For the last 10 years or so, the Department of Agriculture, through the NRCS, with help from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, has been launching peer Demonstration Farm Networks in Wisconsin to help farmers overcome those learning curves, let them see new conservation in practice on their neighbor’s farms, and see what it looks like out in the real world.”
Skidmore adds that in areas that utilized demonstration farm programs, there has been a significant increase in cover crop adoption—up to 50 percent in the last four years.
