IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/uersib/396224.html

Persistence of Cover Crop Use in Crop Production in the United States, 2012–2022

Author

Listed:
  • Pratt, Bryan
  • Paul, Laura
  • Bowman, Maria
  • Messer, Kent
  • Ferraro, Paul

Abstract

Despite extensive research on cover crop use, little research has been done on the repeated use, or persistence, of cover crops in the crop production process. To examine the persistence of cover cropping, this report uses four panel data sources: (1) the U.S. Department of Agricultureʼs (USDAʼs) 2012, 2017, and 2022 Censuses of Agriculture; (2) crop acreage submitted by farmers through the USDA, Farm Service Agencyʼs Form 578 for crop years 2013−19; (3) an on-the-ground, in-person “windshield” survey by the Indiana Conservation Partnership for crop years 2014−19; and (4) the USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) Phase 2 from 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2021. The percentage of land under cover crops differs by data sources, but overall, cover crop use has increased over time. However, in the majority of data sources, this increase over time masks a significant share of fields and operations reducing or disadopting cover crop use. Results also indicate the levels of cover crop use and its persistence are positively correlated across regions but do not substantially differ across crop rotation or when livestock are present on the operation.

Suggested Citation

  • Pratt, Bryan & Paul, Laura & Bowman, Maria & Messer, Kent & Ferraro, Paul, 2026. "Persistence of Cover Crop Use in Crop Production in the United States, 2012–2022," Economic Information Bulletin 396224, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:uersib:396224
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.396224
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/396224/files/EIB-293.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.396224?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bowman, Maria & Afi, Maroua & Beenken, Aubree & Boline, Amy & Drewnoski, Mary & Krupek, Fernanda Souza & Parsons, Jay & Redfearn, Daren & Wallander, Steven & Whitt, Christine, 2024. "Cover Crops on Livestock Operations: Potential for Expansion in the United States," Administrative Publications 342471, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Sheng Gong & Jason.S. Bergtold & Elizabeth Yeager, 2021. "Assessing the joint adoption and complementarity between in-field conservation practices of Kansas farmers," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, December.
    3. Mariano Mezzatesta & David A. Newburn & Richard T. Woodward, 2013. "Additionality and the Adoption of Farm Conservation Practices," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 89(4), pages 722-742.
    4. Michael J. Roberts & Ruben N. Lubowski, 2007. "Enduring Impacts of Land Retirement Policies: Evidence from the Conservation Reserve Program," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 83(4), pages 516-538.
    5. Zhen Cai & Ranjith P. Udawatta & Clark J. Gantzer & Shibu Jose & Larry Godsey & Lauren Cartwright, 2019. "Economic Impacts of Cover Crops for a Missouri Wheat–Corn–Soybean Rotation," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-13, April.
    6. Lee, Seungyub & McCann, Laura, 2019. "Adoption of Cover Crops by U.S. Soybean Producers," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(4), pages 527-544, November.
    7. Andrew B. Rosenberg & Bryan Pratt & Daniel Szmurlo, 2025. "Impacts of an increase in federal assistance for cover cropping: Evidence from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 107(3), pages 795-825, May.
    8. David J. Pannell & Roger Claassen, 2020. "The Roles of Adoption and Behavior Change in Agricultural Policy," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(1), pages 31-41, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Szmurlo, Daniel & Rosenberg, Andrew & Pratt, Bryan, 2026. "Does Cover Cropping Provide Resilience Against Water Stress?," 2026 Annual Meeting, July 26 - 28, 2026, Kansas City, Missouri 404483, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bowman, Maria & Ferraro, Paul J. & Fuller, Kate Binzen & Gramig, Benjamin & Mosheim, Roberto & Njuki, Eric & Pratt, Bryan & Rejesus, Roderick & Rosenberg, Andrew, 2025. "Economic Outcomes of Soil Health and Conservation Practices on U.S. Cropland," Economic Research Report 358985, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    2. Rosenberg, Andrew & Gramig, Benjamin M. & Beeson, Peter & Iovanna, Rich, 2025. "Additionality and Persistence of Afforestation Incentives: Evidence from the Conservation Reserve Program," 2025 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2025, Denver, CO 360765, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Thompson, Nathanael M. & Reeling, Carson J. & Fleckenstein, Michelle R. & Prokopy, Linda S. & Armstrong, Shalamar D., 2021. "Examining intensity of conservation practice adoption: Evidence from cover crop use on U.S. Midwest farms," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    4. Wang, Tong & Jin, Hailong, 2024. "Impact of cost share programs on conservation practice adoption: A new perspective," 2024 Annual Meeting, July 28-30, New Orleans, LA 343974, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Wu, Linghui & Khanna, Madhu & Atallah, Shadi S., 2023. "Drivers and barriers to adopting a cover cropping technology among midwestern farmers," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335568, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. Jacobson, Sarah, 2014. "Temporal spillovers in land conservation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PA), pages 366-379.
    7. Jennifer M. Alix-Garcia & Elizabeth N. Shapiro & Katharine R. E. Sims, 2012. "Forest Conservation and Slippage: Evidence from Mexico’s National Payments for Ecosystem Services Program," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 88(4), pages 613-638.
    8. Luis González Polonio & Silverio Alarcón, 2026. "Complementarities and persistence in innovation strategies: evidence from the Spanish agri-food sector using firm-level panel data," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 14(1), pages 1-27, December.
    9. Shaima Chowdhury Sharna & Md Jaber Rana & Tek Maraseni, 2026. "Adoption of Hybrid, High-yielding and Traditional Rice Varieties and their Adoption Drivers in Climate-hazardous Locations," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-29, April.
    10. Laure Kuhfuss & Raphaële Préget & Sophie Thoyer & Nick Hanley & Philippe Le Coent & Mathieu Désolé, 2016. "Nudges, Social Norms, and Permanence in Agri-environmental Schemes," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 92(4), pages 641-655.
    11. Fleming, Patrick & Lichtenberg, Erik & Newburn, David A., 2018. "Evaluating impacts of agricultural cost sharing on water quality: Additionality, crowding In, and slippage," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 1-19.
    12. Cortés-Capano, Gonzalo & Hanley, Nick & Sheremet, Oleg & Hausmann, Anna & Toivonen, Tuuli & Garibotto-Carton, Gustavo & Soutullo, Alvaro & Di Minin, Enrico, 2021. "Assessing landowners’ preferences to inform voluntary private land conservation: The role of non-monetary incentives," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    13. Pathak, Santosh & Wang, Hua & Adusumilli, Naveen C., 2022. "Contract Non-compliance and Moral Hazard: Evidence from Cost-share Programs in Louisiana, USA," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322324, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. B. James Deaton & Chad Lawley & Karthik Nadella, 2018. "Renters, landlords, and farmland stewardship," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(4), pages 521-531, July.
    15. Jones, Carol Adaire & Nickerson, Cynthia J. & Heisey, Paul W., 2012. "New Uses of Old Tools: An Assessment of Current and Potential Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Mitigation with Sector-based Policies," 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington 124735, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. Liu, Pengfei & Li, Yanggu & Zhang, Wei, 2023. "Local Economic Benefits of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program: Evidence from Rural Housing Markets," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335843, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    17. Khyati Malik, 2026. "Farmer Adoption and Payment Design Under Risk: Variability in Soil Carbon Sequestration Across Conservation Practices," NBER Chapters, in: Risk and Risk Management in the Agricultural Economy, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Chabé-Ferret, Sylvain & Subervie, Julie, 2013. "How much green for the buck? Estimating additional and windfall effects of French agro-environmental schemes by DID-matching," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 12-27.
    19. Wallander, Steven & Aillery, Marcel & Hellerstein, Daniel & Hand, Michael S., "undated". "The Role of Conservation Programs in Drought Risk Adaptation," Economic Research Report 262224, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    20. Sheila Olmstead & Jiameng Zheng, 2019. "Policy Instruments for Water Pollution Control in Developing Countries," World Bank Publications - Reports 33072, The World Bank Group.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:uersib:396224. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ersgvus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.