b'Terry Schultz, CEO of Mustang Seeds, saysPulling the Trigger theyve been seeing an increase in education andBoth DeMasi and Schultz note one major thing demand in cover crops as well. about cover cropsit can be fickle for a farmer In the last five years, weve seen an increasewhos never used cover crops before to pull the in demand in folks using cover crops to help theirtrigger. land be more productive, he says. However, so farPutting a cover crop on the farm wont give in 2020, we havent seen a large spike in demand. a grower a ROI this calendar year, Schultz says. Schultz says one trend hes seen in 2020 wasIt gives it to them the next year. It gives those that profitability was being stretched thin in termsfarmers a hard decision to make when it comes to of commodities, and due to that, theres been athose restraints.lackluster of enthusiasm for cover crops. Schultz says when reaching out to growers, In 2019, we had such a wet year, there was a lotparticularly in the Eastern corner, hes hearing a of prevent planting in South Dakota, he says. Inlot of feedback that farmers are finding it tough 2020, we saw more prevent plant in North Dakota.to make the decision to spend money on cover There are a lot of acres here that didnt get farmedcrops.Risa DeMasi serves as both years. Weve got a very good inventory of coverco-founder and director crops, and theres no shortage, he says.of marketing of Schultz notes that one reason, besides preventGrassland Oregon.plant acres, they saw a spike in 2019 was a large USDA payout for planting cover crops.The more we plan, the better we canIn 2020, that payment isnt out there, he says. That was helping to drive cover crop sales communicate and meet demand.in 2019. The producers that have been coverRisa DeMasi cropping for several years continue to do so. Even though its agronomically the right thing to do, growers new to cover crops find it difficult to pull the trigger.And unlike the research might suggest, cur-Similarly, DeMasi notes a similar trend inrently, DeMasi isnt worried about the land to demand. cover crop seed ratio yet.Weve seen more people talk about coverSome of our seed is already sold out, she crops lately, she says. And there have been somesays. We arent close to overall shortages yet. Terry Schultz serves as spikes in demand, such as in 2019. However, DeMasi says one of the most impor- CEO of Mustang Seeds.DeMasi says overall, COVID-19 hasnt affectedtant things that the cover crop industry can do cover crop production majorly this year, but theyright now is coach and educate growers new to are about a month late on some harvests due tocover cropping to plan ahead.weather and other conditions. We need to be communicating better and Everythings coming in well, but we are seeingplan better, DeMasi says. We have people who a few issues in certain species, she says. We stillwant to buy the seed the day before they plant it. see plenty of demand. You cant grow, produce, clean and harvest seed All-in-all, Schultz notes that it certainly hasntin 24 hours. ON THE WEBWHERE been their biggest cover crop year.Instead, DeMasi says ideally they should plan Last year, many farmers wanted to plant cover18 months in advance. To find more information and data crops, but it was too wet for them to get in theThe more we plan, the better we can com- about cover crops in the U.S., please ground, he says. This year, were moving somemunicate and meet demand, she says. Were notvisit The Cover Crop Information cover crops, but I really believe demand is tied togoing to run out of opportunities to plant for theMap developed by GO SEED at cash flow from farmers. need, as long as we know what the need is.SW gocovercrops.com. 44/ SEEDWORLD.COMOCTOBER 2020'