IARN — Iowa’s cover crop insurance project was covered in a recent webinar hosted by the Iowa Farmers Union.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and partners worked with the USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) to establish a project aimed at expanding usage of cover crops in Iowa. Water quality coordinator Matthew Lechtenberg says IDALS provides $5/acre for cover crops to eligible applicants through this project.
“Most of our losses in Iowa of nutrients comes during the fall and spring between harvest and planting when our soils are most vulnerable to those losses,” Lechtenberg said. “Cover crops can integrate with that cropping system and also mitigate for the loss of those nutrient when we put those in. We also get significant reductions from both nitrogen and phosphorus.”
Funding is provided through RMA as an additional insurance premium discount through normal crop insurance processes. The new premium reduction will be available for fall-planted cover crops with a spring-planted cash crop.
“We see cover crops have expanded and growth has increased over the years,” Lechtenberg said. “That’s in our public sector programs and even beyond for folks doing it on their own. We see most of those folks that are participating have seen the benefits and are bought into this system.”
Some policies may be excluded, such as Whole-Farm Revenue Protection or those covered through written agreements. Participating farmers must follow all existing good farming practices required by their policy and work with their insurance agent to maintain eligibility.
Lechtenberg says IDALS is accepting applications for 2020 cover crops for the 2021 crop insurance period.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network
