By Sonia Howlett, VT Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets
There are many different reasons why cover crops may benefit your farm or garden. Cover crops can improve soil health, help with nutrient cycling, improve crop yields, reduce weed pressure, and build overall soil resilience.
Different cover crop species & varieties have different benefits and different growing & management requirements. When choosing a cover crop to use, it is important to think about your goals (what are you trying to achieve by planting the cover crop?) as well as your logistical sidebars (when will you be able to plant the cover crop? How much money are you willing to invest?).
The Northeast Cover Crop Council (NECC) has online decision support tools that can assist farmers, and those that work with farmers, to think through these decisions around implementing cover crops. For example, the Species Selector Tool can help you choose cover crop species. The Cover Crop Nitrogen Calculator helps predict nitrogen release after cover crop termination. The NECC website also provides a portal into tools developed by other organizations, such as the Winter Cover Crop Planting Scheduler and the Cover Crop Tool for Vegetable Growers, both developed by Cornell University.
Heather Darby is a well-known University of Vermont Extension researcher and outreach specialist who has been a leader in the Northeast Cover Crop Council since the organization’s creation in 2016. According to Heather, “these tools have been built with data produced in the northeast and vetted by researchers and farmers”. Many of the tools consider not just your goals but also your farm’s specific location, soil type, drainage and flooding frequency in order to give you tailored recommendations.
To access and take advantage of these free-to-use decision support tools and other cover cropping resources visit the Northeast Cover Crops Councils’ website at https://northeastcovercrops.com/
After putting in site conditions and cover crop goals, the NECC Cover Crop Selector Tool will share information and recommendations on potential cover crop species to consider, along with their best time to be planted.