Cover Crops Councils

The Southern Cover Crops Council (SCCC) was formed in July 2017 by a community of the willing from all the states and territories in the Southern Region. Our community includes farmers, researchers from land-grant universities and the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Extension specialists, Natural Resources Conservation Service personnel, industry representatives, and non-governmental organizations. Our overarching goal is to increase cover crop use through collaborative education and research across the Southern region.

In 2016, farmers and representatives from agribusiness, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and universities gathered to form the Northeast Cover Crops Council (NECCC). Our organizational objectives include: defining knowledge gaps, fostering multi-state/multi-institutional research and collaboration with farmers, reporting cover crop best management practices, and developing web-based cover crop decision support tools to promote cover crop adoption and maximize cover crop benefits in the Northeast.

The Midwest Cover Crops Council (MCCC) seeks to significantly increase the amount of continuous living cover on the Upper Midwestern agricultural landscape. In an era when the Mississippi River Basin and Great Lakes watershed suffer from serious environmental degradation, this shift in agricultural systems can play a significant and positive role in revitalizing and restoring our lakes, rivers, fields, and communities. To effectively achieve our aim of broad adoption of cover crops by farmers, we are building a vital and effective regional collaboration of agencies, individuals, and the general public.

The Western Cover Crops Council (WCCC) is an organization of members interested in cover crops. All of our members live or work in a state or territory within the Western SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) region. The mission of the Western Cover Crops Council is to facilitate and enhance communication and collaboration that promotes the successful adoption and integration of cover cropping in Western U.S. agricultural systems.