Southern Cover Crops Council

Group works to double cover crop acreage.

southern cover crops councilNeed help deciding which cover crop to plant? What crops match the goals you are trying to achieve in your fields between production seasons? A new resource is available to help producers with these decisions.

The Southern Cover Crops Council was formed in July 2017. The group includes farmers, university researchers, Extension specialists, industry personnel and interested non-governmental organizations, plus representatives from U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and Natural Resource Conservation Service.

The goal of SCCC is to increase cover crop use through collaborative education and research across the South. In fact, its aim is to double the total acreage in cover crops for each state of the Southern region by the next U.S. Ag Census in December 2022.

A Go-To Resource

The Southern Cover Crops Conference was held July 17-18, 2019, in Auburn, Alabama, with nearly 350 participants. Presentations given at the conference can be found on its website: https://southerncovercrops.org. In fact, the website is a wealth of information from the cover crop selection tool to crop-specific information sheets.

Topics include planting and managing cover crops, planting dates, cover crop fertilization and cover crop mixtures. There are resources for planning when and how to terminate the cover crop.

Audrey Gamble, Auburn University professor and Alabama Cooperative Extension Service soil scientist, is a member of the SCCC executive committee and conducts research in conservation cropping systems/cover crops to improve soil health and sustainability.

“The Southern Cover Crops website is a good resource with a lot of information on management of cover crops from planting to termination.”

The SCCC hopes producers will put more planning and management into their cover crop systems, and the council will provide the resources and information to do just that. Farm profitability and environmental stewardship are always top of mind for the council.

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