Title page
Contents
Abstract 3
Acknowledgments 3
Summary 5
Background and Literature Review 7
Overview of Economic Benefits of Integrated Cover Crop/Livestock Systems 11
The Economics of Integrating Livestock and Cover Crop Systems Vary Regionally 15
The Use of Cover Crops on Livestock Operations in the United States 17
Cover Crop Adoption on Cattle Operations in the USDA 2012 and 2017 Censuses of Agriculture 19
Harvesting and Grazing of Cover Crops Is Relatively Common 21
What Types of Cover Crops Are Being Used for Forage or Grazing? 24
Expanding Integrated Cover Crop and Livestock Systems 26
Regional Potential to Expand Integrated Cover Crop and Livestock Systems 26
Potential to Expand Cover Cropping for Forage on Cattle Operations Already Planting Cover Crops 28
Conclusion 30
References 33
Appendix A 39
Appendix B 42
Table 1. Estimated proportion of U.S. cattle operations that have cropland, and average amount of cropland in 2017 8
Table 2. Key factors contributing to the feasibility and/or profitability of grazing cover crops 12
Table 3. Summary of literature findings on effects of integrated cover crop and livestock systems with cover crop grazing on cash crop yield, profit, and costs 13
Table 4. Data sources used in this report, 2012-21 17
Table 5. Types of livestock operations with cattle considered in this report 19
Table 6. Estimated proportion of cattle operations with cropland adopting cover crops by USDA, Economic Research Service Farm Resource Region in the USDA,... 20
Table 7. Estimated proportion of cattle operations with cropland adopting cover crops by USDA, Economic Research Service farm typology, 2017 21
Table 8. A simple framework to identify potential for expansion of integrated cover crop and livestock systems, using cattle density and harvested cropland... 27
Figure 1. Examples of common timelines of cover crop management for forage production in livestock systems in the United States 10
Figure 2. USDA, Economic Research Service Farm Resource Regions 18
Figure 3. Proportion of cattle, livestock, and non-livestock operations reporting cover crops that were grazed, harvested for forage, or unharvested, 2021 22
Figure 4. Percent of dairy and cow-calf operations with cover crops that are harvesting cover crops, not harvesting cover crops, or planting cover crops... 23
Figure 5. Share of cover crops terminated by grazing and harvesting for forage by cover crop type, 2019-21 25
Figure 6. Share of cover crops terminated by grazing and harvesting for forage by subsequent cash crop type, 2019-21 26
Figure 7. Relative potential to increase the proportion of harvested cropland that is cover cropped for use in livestock systems, 2017 28
Figure 8. Proportion of cropland acres cover cropped for dairy and cow-calf operations with cover crops, 2018-20 29
Table A.1. Selected findings on the effects of integrated crop-livestock systems with grazed cover crops on soil health and environmental outcomes 39
Table A.2. Summary of findings from the literature of above-ground biomass production and nutritive analysis of cover crop forage 40
Table A.3. Summary of findings from the literature of livestock performance on cover crops, 2007-21 41
Table B.1. Estimated percentage of dairy operations with cover crops by cover crop use categories reported (harvested, unharvested, and/or grazed), 2018-21 42
Table B.2. Estimated percentage of cow-calf operations with cover crops by cover crop use categories reported (harvested, unharvested, and/or grazed), 2018-21 42