By Dan Looker, IAWA writer

DES MOINES, Iowa – March 25, 2026 – In a struggling farm economy, will Iowa’s progress with cover crops be dragged down by burdensome operational costs and prices?

It’s too early to tell, but our insights say, “no.” Multiple vendors of cover crop seed and cost share say demand continues to grow. However, the mix of seeds and how farmers apply them on Iowa fields could be shifting.

Iowa needs at least 12 million acres of cover crops for water quality progress in the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy. Progress has been steadily climbing, but with the number one farmer concern on cover crops being cost or risk… the farm economy could be a barrier.

The stats are gloomy.

In last year’s fourth quarter, the average size of operating loans hit a record high (about $120,000, according to the Fed. Farmer sentiment about the ag economy is down 23%, according to the Purdue University/CME Ag Economy Barometer. Meanwhile, the ratio of a farm’s debt to assets continues to rise – USDA numbers show it’s up to 13.75%. (The ratio soared above 20% in the troubled 90’s).

Farmers know they’re tough, but their resilience seems to be surprising even farmers themselves.

Dean Sponheim and his son, Josh, run a cover crop seed and application business from their farm near Nora Springs in northern Iowa.  While reorganizing his office last winter, Dean was startled to find more new clients than he expected. “I had to make up 30 new files for 30 customers we had this year,” he said. “I was astounded.”

That represents a small fraction of their business and a small number of acres for each farmer but “it’s still a sign of growth,” he said.

At about the same time they hosted a “Shop Talk” for the Iowa Soybean Association. One question came up about making covers work financially. “It was never mentioned to stop planting cover crops. I thought for sure someone would say that but nobody did,” he recalled.

Nick Helland, who farms near Huxley in central Iowa, isn’t giving up on cover crops, either. But he is making changes to lower costs.

“We have actually switched to oats rather than rye,” said Helland, who has used cover crops since 2012. Unlike rye, oats die over the winter and don’t need to be terminated in the spring.

Switching to all oats will save time and money. The machine to apply herbicides to terminate rye runs about $12 per acre and chemicals add another $5 to $6. “I would say it’s a minimum of $15/A, somewhere between $15 and $20 by saving that pass,” Helland said.

But there’s a tradeoff. Oats have less water quality and soil health benefit because they don’t provide cover in the spring. Still, they are better than bare ground.

“You’ve got more aggressive fall growth,” Helland says of oats vs. rye. And even without rye’s green-up in the spring, “you’ve got those roots from fall growth still holding things together.”

Helland has always used oats in the rotation because he says they perform better ahead of corn. This year, they’re just using them on more acres.

The Hellands know it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, so changes are expected year to year. Plus, they are trying other conservation practices that improve water quality—bioreactors and saturated buffers. Two years ago, they installed a wetland and hope to add pollinator habitat and oxbows.

Yet, in the current economy, “I wouldn’t say it’s full speed ahead. I think we’re holding steady,” Helland said.

Farmer support remains strong

Nick Helland may represent the upper end of farmer support for cover crops and conservation. The Iowa Soybean Association gave him its 2026 Environmental Leader Award. But Helland isn’t alone in making conservation work in a business.

Dean Sponheim said that most of their customers are sticking with cover crops, even some who have lost government cost share, “because they know the benefits of what it does for their farm.”

“We probably have a retention rate of 80%,” he added. “We work pretty hard to do that.”

This retention is a positive sign. Many farmers rely on cost share to at least get started with cover crops, but the goal is to not remain on it forever.

Even an ISU Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll that showed declining farmer support for the Nutrient Reduction Strategy might not be as negative as it seemed when released in fall of 2025.

The poll compared farmers’ views on agriculture, water quality and conservation between 2014, and 2024. In 2014, 76% agreed with the statement, “I am concerned about agriculture’s impacts on Iowa’s water quality.” In 2024, only 70% agreed or strongly agreed.

J. Arbuckle, the ISU sociologist who produced the poll and its report, sees that as a small decline.

“Even if it’s statistically significant, I don’t know if it’s practically significant,” he said. “I feel like, in general, the support is fairly strong. A substantial majority of farmers still support the nutrient reduction strategy’s goals.”

The timing of the poll is notable. In 2014, the Nutrient Reduction Strategy had just been released. In Feb. of 2024, Iowa had seen several years of low nitrate levels in source water due to drought, and therefore, less in the news about water quality.

According to the poll, landlord reluctance to spend on conservation as well as pressure to make profits were cited as two of the largest barriers to conservation adoption.

“Particularly when prices are where they are right now, there’s concern about profit margins and taking risk,” Arbuckle said.  “This is the worst ag economy we’ve seen in years.”

Cost share as a short-term solution

Cost share is usually a way to lower risks when transitioning to cover crops for the first time, but it may also be useful for long-time cover crop users facing tough times.

Last fall, Iowa farmers signed up for a record $13 million in state cost share for cover crops, said Susan Kozak, who heads the soil and water quality division of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

“We were shocked,” she recalled. “We were very happy with this. I think farmer interest remains strong.”

The Department usually budgets up to $9 million for cover crops. In 2025, they budgeted $11 million, but that wasn’t enough. “We had a lot of feedback because we ran out of money,” Kozak said. So IDALS tapped an excise tax available for that purpose to boost it to $13 million.

Meanwhile, due to USDA cuts of Biden-era conservation funding, federal cost share declined. Iowa NRCS only obligated $75.3 million in conservation cost share last year compared to $112 million in 2024.

That doesn’t mean the demand was there, though. For their top three programs, only one in five contracts were accepted because there wasn’t enough money to go around.

Ways to save

Cover crops typically cost $40 an acre or more, depending on seed type and the method of planting. Cost share can put a big dent in that amount. The IDALS program offers $30/acre for first-time users and $20/A for returning applicants. It’s limited to 160 acres for each participant.  

There are other programs, too, and if a farmer is dedicated enough to paperwork, there are ways to get up to $70-$100 per acre for multi-species cover crops. The goal is not to profit, but to account for risk of yield loss.

IAWA has a tool for farmers to compare programs and find the right ones for them. In 2026, it will be critical to sign up for cost share early.

Other ways to save: use the least expensive seed, usually rye, oats or wheat. And eliminate field passes when possible. If you need fall application of P and K, you can broadcast rye seed at the same time. “That saves you one pass,” said Ruth McCabe, who leads Heartland Coop’s conservation agronomy team. In the spring, to kill the rye, “try to terminate with your spring burn down” of weeds.

She agrees with Nick Helland that using oats also eliminates termination costs since it dies over winter. But oats need to be planted earlier than rye in the fall, usually by the end of September, she said.

Nolan Grove, another conservation agronomist with Heartland, helps farmers get cover crops on earlier through their cover crop seeding program, which charges reasonable rates to increase conservation adoption. They use a Hagie highboy sprayer fitted with a MonTag box for seeding. The machine is owned by Polk County, the city of Des Moines, IDALS and Des Moines Water Works.

The farmer pays $12/acre if the seed is applied in season and $8 post-harvest, a rate comparable to other commercial services. But farmers can reduce that cost, say by borrowing a drill from a neighbor in exchange for money or a favor, Grove said. Or, as McCabe suggested, it can be eliminated altogether by broadcasting seed with fall fertilizer.

In tough times, though, cover crop adoption growth ultimately comes down to cost share for even the cheapest approaches.

“As long as there’s cost share that’s covering the cost, people are still going to do it,” Grove said.

Strong conservationists like Helland also use cost share “as much as we can,” he said.

Helland, who rents some of the land they farm, even sees increased interest in cover crops by landlords but much depends on the availability of cost share to make the investment worth it.

“If funding is there, I think we will hold where we are. If that funding dries up, those acres will dry up very quickly,” he said.