The many benefits of no-tillers planting green are starting to be recognized much more by folks as shown in two recent developments that promoted the concept through unique corn and soybean yield contests.

Planting Green Soybeans

Tom Novak of Highland, Wis., topped the new planting green soybean category in the state’s 2024 yield contest. His contest plot averaged 85.22 bushels per acre, seeded at a rate of 140,000 seeds per acre on April 24 in 7½-inch rows with a John Deere 1590 drill. 

“Planting green can and does look ugly, but teamed with soybeans, it works well,” Novak told Wisconsin Agriculturist writers. 

Over 20 years, Novak has witnessed numerous pros and cons with cover crops. In 2024, his radishes and turnips overwintered and didn’t die even after making a preemergence herbicide pass. While he had to roll and smash the cover crop mix to kill the roots, the mulch kept erosion to nearly zero and reduced weed pressures.

Planting Green Popularity

In the recently completed 17th annual No-Till Farmer Operational Benchmark Study, 59% of growers planted a portion of their crops into green cover crops. This was an increase from 55% in 2023, but down from 71% in 2022.

Some 79% of no-tillers planted green with soybeans, and 62% for corn. With 84% of these no-tillers utilizing cover crops, they averaged 644 acres in 2024.

$20,000 for Planting Green

In 2024 and 2025, Tom Woodword at the Virginia Seed Co., in Unionville, Va. funded a planting green competition for corn growers in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina with a donation of $10,000 for each of the top yields in 2024 irrigated and dryland production. One rule was that the cover crop could not be terminated prior to 3 days ahead of planting corn, which was confirmed with satellite imagery.

Woodword says the ‘Mid-Atlantic Plant Green” corn yield contest was developed to promote the benefits of cover crops and to demonstrate innovative corn management practices in the Chesapeake Bay area.

Paul Davis of Davis Produce in Lynchburg, Va, captured the top spot in the irrigated corn class. Overcoming a serious drought, the dryland winner was Jamie Schneck of Beauregard Farms in Brandy Station, Va., with a yield of 280 bushels per acre. 

Both of these are examples of innovative ideas to boost planting green among no-tillers. Maybe others can contribute other ideas.