Karl Plume

CHICAGO (Reuters). ILLINOIS farmer Jack McCormick (NYSE 🙂 has planted 350 acres barley, radishes and other crops last autumn as part of an unharvested crop. McCormick will instead spray a weedkiller on the plants next spring, before McCormick plant soybeans in that same soil.

Food will be made from the barley, radishes and other vegetables. Bayer AG McCormick (DE) will receive a payment for McCormick’s planting of them. These so-called cover crop plants will create carbon offset credits to the seeds and chemicals manufacturer.

Cover crops serve three purposes: to reduce soil erosion, restore soil and draw climate-warming carbon out of the atmosphere by photosynthesis. Companies can create carbon credits by measuring carbon stored in roots or other plant material in order to offset any pollution.

It shows how agriculture has been adapting to the changing climate. The sale of crops to feed livestock and food does not make farmers rich anymore. Farmers may be compensated for their contribution in helping reduce planet-warming emission.

U.S. farmers plant more cover crops. They use everything from rye grass and oats to legumes or radishes. Although some can be used as biofuels and fed to cattle, the majority aren’t harvested. Their value in soil is higher than if they are broken down.

Regenerative agriculture is based on cover crops. They are often viewed by environmentalists to be an enhancement of traditional agriculture. Cover crops are a farming method that reduces soil pollution and improves soil health. It involves crop rotation and livestock grazing.

Rob Myers is the director of the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at University of Missouri. He estimates that crop plantings could have risen to 22 million acres by 2021. This is 43% higher than the 15.4 million acres of 2017 U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics.

Cover crops are being driven forward by so many factors. Carbon payments are the latest thing. “We’ve witnessed a tremendous farmer interest soil health,” said he.

Myers predicts that between 40 and 50 millions acres of cover crop land will be planted each year by the end, according to Myers.

Experts predict that the surge in conservation efforts will accelerate.

A greater increase in cover crop production could prove to be an asset to fertilizer and seed companies. However, it’s difficult to know which crops growers will plant.

In the two-years that have passed, several companies including Bayer and Land O’Lakes as well Cargill Inc. launched carbon farming programs. These pay farmers for carbon capture by growing cover crops or reducing soil tillage.

Truterra, a subsidiary of Land O’Lakes, paid $4 million in cash to U.S. farmers who enrolled in the carbon program. The company claims that it has captured 200,000 tons carbon in soils.

Other pilot programs are also expanding, such as Cargill’s plan to expand its sustainable farming programs to 10,000,000 acres by the end the decade. This is an increase from the current 360,000 acres. Seedmaker Corteva (NYSE:) Inc increased its carbon offer from the three U.S. States to eleven for the season 2022.

For years, federal conservation programs paid farmers to reserve environmentally sensitive land such as flood plains and wildlife habitat. And the Biden administration is planning to expand these programs. The Build Back Better legislation by President Joe Biden targeted $28 billion to conservation programs. This includes up to $5B in payments to landowners and farmers for covering crops. However, the fate of this bill is still unknown.

“WANT TO DO IT”

Much of the growth in cover crop plantings to date has been led by a limited number of conservation-conscious farmers pursuing other goals such as soil fertility or water management. Programme payments do not cover labor or seeds.

McCormick said, “You have to be willing to do it.” He has doubled his cover crop area over the last six years and was paid his first Bayer payment this fall.

“If someone wants to give me money per acre for doing something, I will take it. It wouldn’t be for the incentives. “I don’t think that the incentives were sufficient,” he stated, noting that cover crops play a major role in improving soil fertility and drought tolerance on his farm.

Similar to Ohio farmer Dave Gruenbaum, he quickly increased his cover crop plants after liquidating his dairy herd five years back. He grew his land by 1,700 acres each year for the last two years.

He said, “It’s all about having something green grow year-round.” It’s incredible how soil changes.

Gruenbaum signed up for Truterra’s program, which helped offset some of his labor and planting costs.

A few experts warn against the possibility that farmers will have to plant more cover crops in off-seasons, especially if there is more volatility in spring.

It is also possible to run out of seed for cover crops.

There’s an amazing pulse of demand. Truterra’s president Jason Weller stated that seed demand will outstrip supply and there would be an immense supply challenge at the American Seed Trade Association Conference in Chicago.

Although the crop destruction emissions are very low, critics believe that the practice could increase the use of chemical fertilizers as the land grows.

According to environmentalists, cover cropping is still a significant improvement over traditional agriculture. Traditional agriculture leaves the fields untended for half of the year. It also forgoes a large amount of carbon-capture potential.

Amanda Starbuck (research director at Food and Water Watch) said that cover crops are an important component of both organic and regenerative agriculture systems. It all comes down to how the cover crops are implemented.