Cover Crop Seed Costs Likely to Increase
Cover crops [CC] are increasingly becoming part of cropping systems as farmers strive to become more environmentally sustainable, improve soil health, and control problem weeds. For row crop producers in the Midsouth, the major categories of CC’s to consider are grasses [cereal rye, triticale, wheat, oats], legumes [vetches, peas, clovers], and brassicas [radishes, rape, turnips].
As with any input into a cropping system, there is a cost associated with using CC’s, and a major one with CC use is the cost of seed. Two articles–one by Chris Torres titled “Cover crop seed costs to increase” in American Agriculturist on June 15, 2023, and the other titled “Winter Wheat and Cover Crop Seed Outlook” by Matthew Wilde in Progressive Farmer on Sept. 20, 2022–provide information that may influence how CC use may be affected by the availability and cost of seed in 2023. Major points from those articles follow.
• Most of the CC seed that will be planted this fall is still growing on seed farms.
• CC seed supplies are tight in some regions due to weather-related production issues such as drought.
• Prices for seed of fall-planted cereals such as cereal rye [most popular CC species] and triticale, plus some of the other more popular CC species, will increase.
• A potential long-term problem is getting more growers to grow CC’s for seed since competing commodity crops such as corn and soybeans can be covered by crop insurance.
• If there is a continued push to plant more CC’s, there might not be enough seed supply to meet this increased demand.
• Increased importation of CC seed will be needed to meet the potential increased demand for those seed. This likely will stabilize CC seed prices in the future.
The below links are to companies that sell a wide array of seeds of common CC species that are used by producers [the linked companies in no way are meant to exclude other companies that sell cover crop seeds].
Producers who are using CC’s or are adding CC’s to their production systems should find and book CC seed well ahead of intended planting time just like they do for seed of commodity crops such as corn, soybean, grain sorghum, and rice. Companies that sell CC seeds [such as those linked above] should be contacted well ahead of intended planting to ensure the availability of seed of desired CC species and to lock in associated prices.
Click here to access a White Paper on this website that provides details about using CC’s, and here to access a White Paper about how using CC’s may qualify for extra income through a carbon program.
Composed by Larry G. Heatherly, June 2023, larryh91746@gmail.com