Trading Seeds for Cover Crops

The practice of cover cropping has exploded in recent years and along with it, confusion about rules and regulations that govern the seed trade.

‘Cover cropping’ was brought in to farm subsidy programs to encourage seeding bare, tilled soils pre- and post-harvest, as living roots reduce erosion. Fall rye has been the cover crop of choice because it is allelopathic, big and hardy – meaning it’s good at suppressing weeds.

According to the Center for Rural Affairs, there are now federal, state, and local cost-share reward incentives for U.S. farmers to adopt cover cropping. The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has two separate financial assistance programs for cover cropping, that can be stacked on incentives from agribusiness, farm groups, local watershed and conservation districts, and crop insurance programs.  

All these incentives have translated into monumental demand growth for the seed to plant cover crops, and rye is far from the only plant that will do the job. Because it’s the most common one though, the long-term average price of $3-4/bu in southern Manitoba has risen in recent years to $10/bu+.

That’s a 3-fold increase in the value of a commodity that competes for acres with crops whose prices have dropped sharply during the same period. As this could lead to a significant shift into rye production, it’s important to understand the regulations governing the seed trade, which are generally related to intellectual property and seed stock purity.