As cover crop adoption grows in Iowa, new research finds not all farmers intend to keep planting them

The use of cover crops in Iowa has expanded significantly in recent years. The conservation practice, which has been shown to reduce erosion and enhance soil health, is promoted by the state through cost share incentives — an effort by the Iowa Department of Agriculture to reduce nutrients that contribute to the Gulf dead zone. But new research suggests that while the number of acres being planted with cover crops has grown, not all farmers are sticking with the practice.

A study published this summer by Iowa State University researchers found that of more than 3,200 Iowa farmers surveyed, about 20 percent who planted cover crops abandoned the practice a few years after adoption.

“This study shows that adoption is not a one-time decision — it’s a dynamic process influenced by a range of factors,” co-author Suraj Upadhaya, former ISU research scientist and current assistant professor of sustainable systems at Kentucky State University, said in a news release about the study. “To meet Iowa’s sustainability goals, we need to understand the degree to which farmers are disadopting conservation practices, and figure out how to help them maintain the practices over time.”

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What the study entails

Chris Morris, a postdoctoral research associate at ISU, said the research team interviewed farmers statewide across six watersheds between 2015 and 2019.

To classify farmers’ feelings about planting cover crops, the researchers created three categories: non-adoption, open to adoption and adoption.

The survey showed that 20 percent of the farmers who reported planting cover crops on their land one year had ceased using them the following year.

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However, of the 20 percent who opted out of planting cover crops a second year, the survey found not all were opposed to planting cover crops again.

J. Arbuckle, professor of rural sociology at ISU, said most of those farmers — about 15 percent — opted out of cover crops for one year but would be open to resuming the practice in the future.

Only about 4 percent of the farmers who participated in the survey had totally abandoned using cover crops, saying that they have no intention of using them again.

“What we found was a whole lot more of shifting back and forth than we anticipated,” Arbuckle said.

While some farmers reported they would not plant cover crops again, the survey showed the conservation practice experienced overall growth among farmers, with 1.9 percent more farmers adopting the practice over the four years of the study.

Cover crops present challenges that can act as barriers

Iowa has seen significant growth in the number of acres planted in cover crops over the past two decades.

In 2009, fewer than 10,000 acres were planted in cover crops, according to data collected by Practical Farmers of Iowa. That number skyrocketed to about 1.2 million acres of cover crops planted statewide in 2022.

Cover crop planting jumped even higher in 2024, when Iowa farmers planted about 3.8 million acres of cover crops. The most popular cover crops that year were cereal rye, oats, radishes and turnips.

Despite that growth, the number of acres planted in cover crops still is just a fraction of the 30 million acres of farmland in Iowa.

Experts say cover crops present challenges to farmers that can act as barriers to adoption.

Morris, whose research at ISU focuses on the social and systemic factors that influence farmer adoption of conservation practices, said some of these barriers include the cost of purchasing and planting cover crops, balancing the cover crops with other farm work, and challenges that come with farming on rented land.

For farmers planting on rented land, specifically, Arbuckle said, it is “a huge deal.”

“Just the fact that so much land is rented is one of those major barriers because the investment of money on land that's not going to be securely in your possession for a long period, particularly these practices that have benefits accrue over time,” Arbuckle said. “A lot of farmers are in really short-term leases, and a lot of farmers feel like landlords aren't interested in investing in conservation practices on rented land, because they may or may not be farming that land one or two or three years from now.”

To address cost barriers and encourage the use of cover crops, the Iowa Department of Agriculture offers cost-share incentives. Both first-time users of cover crops and returning participants can apply for financial assistance.

According to IDALS, farmers who are planting cover crops for the first time are eligible to receive $30 per acre. Returning farmers to the program are eligible for $20 per acre.

The cost-share funding through the state’s program caps each producer at 160 acres.

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Morris said that these state-sponsored programs are helpful, but they’re not a long-term solution.

“Other research has found that cost-share tends to have a positive effect on adoption but it's not a silver bullet,” he said.

Morris said many farmers surveyed said they recognized the benefits of cover crops, but they didn’t adopt them due to financial strain, even with the availability of cost-share programs.

“Farmers really talked about programs being something that helps to overcome that economic barrier, but they said that a lot of those programs either don't pay enough, are way too complicated in terms of time and paperwork and things like that, and also they are finite in time, so they're only going to be like a one- to three-year program at most,” Morris said. “After that they're on the hook for the full cost.”

Morris described cover crops as a “short-term economic cost” that has a long-term benefit. While use of cover crops can reduce the need for fertilizer, increase soil health and lead to better productivity, he said those benefits can be difficult to measure and it can take years to see the difference.

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“It's hard for farmers to justify that high economic cost of cover crops in any given year if there's not going to be an immediate payoff. … Most of these farmers are making marginal profits in any given year, if any, and some are at a net loss. So, there's a huge weight on farmers’ shoulders of trying to keep the farm going, especially if it's a farm that's been in their families for generations,” Morris said. “Anything that could potentially put them out of business is going to seem like a threat.”

Through conversations with producers across the state, Morris said farmers have told him if cover crops “benefit me economically, then I'll do it. And if not, it's going to be harder to justify.”

In terms of logistics, Morris said it also can be tricky for farmers to incorporate cover crops into their annual planting schedule.

“It's complicated because a lot of farmers are doing the cover crops in the winter, so between getting the current crop harvested, planting the cover crop, getting that terminated before the next crop, if this cover crop is not going to work in that schedule, it's going to be abandoned,“ he said. “There's also some logistic things with not a whole lot of people being able to line things up logistically is sometimes a barrier, so farmers are saying, ‘It's not worth it.’”

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Focusing on the ‘big picture’

Sean Stokes, research director at the Rodale Institute Midwest Organic Center in Marion, pointed to the “big picture.” While the ISU study shows some “disadoption” among farmers across the state, more acres of cover crops are being planted in Iowa.

“This study really reflects that farming is a year-to-year business,” he said. “A farmer might only plant a cover crop, like cereal rye before soybeans, and then when they go to corn the next year, they might not plant that again. But then when they go back to soybeans, they might use cover crops again. I think it's important to keep the big picture in mind, and really look that in general, we're seeing increases in cover crops over time.”

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Stokes said that the “big picture” includes the fact that number of farmers engaging with cover crops varies from year to year, but the number of acres that are invested in cover crop practices has been increasing, even doubling in recent years.

“Every farmer and every farm is unique, and they're all going to have different motivations for what's driving their cover crop adoption,” he said. “There might be some farmers that are really concerned about more societal issues like water quality, and that might motivate them, or they might want to improve soil health for their future generations that are taking over the farm But for a lot of farmers, it's a business decision. Are they going to see more money per acre in the following years when using cover crops or are they going to lose money? That's where there is some risk.”

Stokes added that although the number of Iowa’s acres that have been put into cover crop adoption has grown significantly, it’s still a small portion of agricultural land in the state.

“The percentage is increasing and it's still a smaller percentage than we'd like to see. I mean, 3.8 million acres is probably 10 to 15 percent of our total farmland, so it'd be great to see that number increase, but we need to focus on the positives as well,” he said. “That general number is increasing over time, especially in recent years. I expect that to keep increasing, because as farmers see other farmers in their community reaping the benefits of cover crop use, I think they're more likely to adopt these practices.”

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Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. She is also a contributing writer for the Ag and Water Desk, an independent journalism collaborative focusing on the Mississippi River Basin.

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Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com