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Already 1 Million Strong, State Looks To Bolster Cover Crop Acreage

By Brock Turner

Posted December 6, 2018

cover-crop-seeds10.jpg

Cover crops help increase yields, but come at a cost for farmers. (Brock Turner, WTIU/WFIU News)

Many farmers across the state just finished their harvest, but a growing number of them are spending money on seeds not used to produce crops.

Indiana’s Department of Agriculture is pushing more farmers to begin planting cover crops.

Joe Pedan is part of a growing number of Indiana farmers who have adopted cover crops as a part of their routine.

"Take a shovel and dig down and rake and raise it up," he says. "It will just be full of fishing worms, red worms, and it’s just alive with those things that are beneficial to the farm and beneficial to the soil."

Farmers use a number of different seeds, but each serve a similar purpose. They prepare the soil for next year’s crop and are not harvested.  It’s an added expense and chore for farmers, but it can pay dividends.

Cover crops add key nutrients to the soil, increase yields, and can even help control erosion and runoff. 

Indiana’s Department of Agriculture estimates farmers plant one million acres of cover crops and hope to increase that to 5 million acres by 2025.

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