ICGA provides its members with a variety of opportunities to incorporate cover crops on their farms. The programs facilitate cover crop adoption among farmers who are interested in this practice, but hesitant to get started.
- First Time Cover Croppers—Through an ICGA and Beck’s Hybrids partnership, this cost-share program provides aerial applications of up to 40 acres per farm of a winter terminal (low risk) oats and radish cover crop mixture. It includes technical assistance from Beck’s Hybrids cover crop specialists. In 2019, 75 first time cover crop users took advantage of this program and applied cover crops to 3,000 acres. Since its inception, 388 farmers and 15,520 acres have been enrolled.
- Cover Crop Coupon—Through a partnership among seven Midwest cover crop retailers, this coupon provides ICGA members a discount of $150 - $200 on the purchase of cover crop seed.
ICGA is an ardent supporter of cover crops, developing and leading programs for ICGA members that have resulted in the planting of more than 100,000 cover crop acres over the past five growing seasons in Illinois. Over 52,000 of those acres were from the 2019 and 2020 crop years.
Additional information is available on ICGA’s website at ilcorn.org/covercrops
