Cover Crops Survey Results, Cattle on Feed 1% Above a Year Ago

The University of Missouri recently published their biannual cover crop survey that includes current trends and cover cropping practices. Professor and Center for Regenerative Agriculture director Dr. Robert Myers shares what influences farmers to make their cover cropping choices.

“We find the longer they're using them, the more they start to gravitate towards mixes. It's not that they're only using mixes, but they'll do more fields with mixes, and they like the benefits they see from having those. We often find that first-time users of cover crops will tend to keep it simple. They'll just start with one or maybe two species. So indeed, cereal rot is the most popular one. It's used on about half of all cover crop acres, either by itself or with other species.”

Dr. Myers says cover crops are used with corn, soybeans, cotton, and sorghum, but with soybeans the use is higher, especially the method of planting green.

“We keep the cover crop alive in the spring until we plant that cash crop. That's a practice that we didn't used to see a decade ago, hardly at all, but now has become quite common.”University of Missouri's Dr. Robert Myers.

USDA's latest cattle on feed report shows that cattle and calves on feed and feedlots are 1% above a year ago. August placements fell sharply. Feedlots added one point 62 million head, down 9% from a year ago, and the lowest August placement since records began in 1996.