Northeast Cover Crop Decision Support Tool

Created with SARE support
Northeast Cover Crop Council | 2021

The Northeast Cover Crops Council (NECCC) has created an online tool designed to support farm decision-making around cover crops.

The tool includes a Cover Crop Explorer that provides in-depth information on more than 35 cover crop species.

Northeast Cover Crops Council screenshot of cover crops explorer page

It also has a Species Selector that assists users in selecting individual cover crops based on plant hardiness zones, field soil and growing conditions, and cover cropping goals.

Northeast Cover Crops Council screenshot of selector tool directions

The tool is available at no cost at: http://covercrop.tools/.

More than 35 specialists from around the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic contributed their expertise to develop the tool. The project was spearheaded by the Northeast Cover Crops Council, a group of farmers, researchers, Extension educators and personnel from nonprofits and industry that encourages the adoption of cover crops by fostering the exchange of information, inspiration and outcome-based research. The Council collaborated with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service ARS and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Agricultural Informatics Lab and Precision Sustainable Agriculture to design the tool.

In addition to funding from Northeast SARE, support to develop the tool came from USDA Sustainable Agricultural Systems (SAS CAP) program, USDA Organic Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), a USDA NIFA postdoctoral fellowship, USDA ARS and NRCS and Purdue University.

Want more information? See the related SARE grant:

This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.