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Cover Crop Economic Decision Support Tool

Ray Massey and Drew Kientzy

Summary

The Cover Crop Economic Decision Support Tool (DST) (covercrop-econ.org/#/) was developed to assist producers across the U.S. in determining the economic impact of planting cover crops. Managing risk requires a thorough understand of costs and benefits. The DST leads users through the various activities impacting the economics of crop plantings – seed selection, planting, termination, changes in tillage and herbicide use, erosion control, yield impacts, and grazing and other possible revenue sources. Each activity tab provides basic information and links to outside resources and allows users to enter their decisions. Responses to questions determine subsequent questions until the necessary information is fully provided. Default values (e.g., input prices and NRCS cost share by state) for many factors are provided – each can be overridden by the user. Machinery choices are very flexible. Custom activities or owned equipment can be chosen. If owned equipment is chosen, modifiable default costs are supplied. Some cover crop users do not attribute some equipment ownership costs (e.g., taxes, insurance, depreciation) to cover crops, considering them sunk costs. Each equipment activity cost can easily be excluded. As the user moves through the questions, a summary of costs and revenue table visibly reports the impact. The final product is a financial impact summary in the form of a partial budget – displaying increases and decreases in costs and income. ERME participants will receive basic training on how to use the Cover Crop DST so they can assist farmers in their state in determining the economic impact of planting cover crops.

Details

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