Cover Crop Utilization across Nebraska and Implications for Cropland Lease Arrangements in 2019

The Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Survey and Report 2018-2019 provides insight on recent trends in the market value of land and cash rental across the state. Each year the special feature section from this report covers topics on new or emerging issues related to the agricultural land industry in Nebraska. These topics reflect interest expressed by panel members and readership of the Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Highlights Reports. The special feature section in 2019 focuses on trends and considerations for cover crops across Nebraska and implications on cropland lease arrangements. Findings from the 2017 Census of Agriculture in Table 1 provide an overview of the utilization of cover crops across the eight districts of the state (USDANASS, 2019). Approximately 748 thousand acres of cover crops were grown by about 38 thousand operators on approximately 22 million acres of cropland across Nebraska in 2017. Cover crops were planted on about 3.4 percent of cropland acres across the state by 4,419 operators