URBANA – Cover crops, with their ability to reduce erosion and promote soil health, are being planted across more Midwestern land than ever. That’s according to new University of Illinois ...

Cover crops help preserve Illinois’ fertile soil, and the organic matter essential to the quality of the soil has been reduced by half over the past 180 years because of erosion, advocates said.

Cover crops have long-term benefits but can be expensive and require extra work. Crop yields may even decrease during the first few years. Cover crops cost roughly $35 to $40 an acre, and farmers ...

Less than 6% of Illinois farmland uses cover crops. The soil in Illinois is famously fertile and much of the land is flat. The soil isn’t highly erodible like soil on a slope or a hill might be.

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) - Cover crops are growing in popularity in central Illinois as a way to preserve nutrients in soil and purity in water runoff. These secondary crops, such as oats, canola and ...

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — Cover crops are growing in popularity in central Illinois as a way to preserve nutrients in soil and purity in water runoff.

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) - Cover crops are growing in popularity in central Illinois as a way to preserve nutrients in soil and purity in water runoff. These secondary crops, such as oats, canola and ...

Cover crops and soil health are what drew about 50 other farmers to a Nutrient Stewardship Field Day put on last week by the Marshall-Putnam Farm Bureau at Mark Monier’s farm.

In a state where agriculture is the No. 1 business and contributes more than $8.8 billion to the state's economy annually, cover crops are planted on only 5% of the ...

In a state where agriculture is the No. 1 business and contributes more than $8.8 billion to the state's economy annually, cover crops are planted on only 5% of the ...

Only a fraction of conventional row crop farmers grow cover crops after harvest, but a new global analysis from the University of Illinois shows the practice can boost soil microbial abundance by 27%.