Cover crop decision support tools

Publication date: 17-06-2026
Extent: 18 pages

Contributions by: Victoria J. Ackroyd, University of Maryland, USA; Heather Darby, University of Vermont, USA; Mikah Pinegar and S. Chris Reberg Horton, North Carolina State University, USA; and Steven B. Mirsky, USDA-ARS, USA

Chapter synopsis:

To maximize the multiple agroecosystem services that cover crops provide, farmers and their advisers need detailed information. Assorted groups have sought to distill the large amount of information pertaining to cover crop management into decision support tools to provide recommendations. However, such tools have suffered from concerns including a lack of site-specificity, failure to integrate existing data across agricultural systems and scales, and suboptimal user interface design. This chapter reports on tools developed by the Precision Sustainable Agriculture (PSA) network that are site-specific, relevant across the US, and user-friendly. We provide examples of a cover crop species selector and a cover crop nitrogen calculator. Future challenges relate to the amount of data held within tools, the need for regular updates, and the difficulty in modeling interactions between cash and cover crop genetics, the environment, and management to provide the best possible recommendations.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2025.0162.11