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Expansion of cover crops should improve sustainability

A representative of Bayer Crop Science says the expansion of cover crops should improve sustainability well into the future.

Charlie Foresman, Sustainable Agriculture Systems Lead tells Brownfield he expects to see more cover crops on farms in the coming years, based on current trends.

“We’re about 17 million acres in the U.S. cover cropped, but if you go back to 2012 we were only at 10. So year over year we are getting about 10 percent to 13 percent growth in cover crops.”

He tells Brownfield he believes the importance of sustainability to farmers has been driven by two things.

“We have this new class of consumers, they want to know where their food comes from. They want to know what happens on the farm. They want to know how it was produced and if it was sustainably produced and so our farmers are reacting to that. At the same time, I think farmers have always been good stewards of the land. They care about how it is managed and want to pass it down to the next generations.”

Foresman says it is a combination of better management practices and new technology that will help farmers become more sustainable through cover crops.

Brownfield Director Cyndi Young interviewed Foresman at the 2018 NAFB Convention: