Cover crops offer a wide range of potential benefits for producers – better nutrient cycling, more weed suppression, more livestock forage, better soil structure, increased soil organic matter and healthier soil microbial communities. To reap those benefits, producers need to make some careful decisions.

It’s well known that the ability of no-tilled soils to retain more moisture can pay off in drought years, but the practice can also beat out conventional tillage when there’s too much water.