Building Better Yields with Cover Crops and No-Till Practices

In 2025, farmers have experienced a barrage of extreme weather, from severe flooding in the Southeast, to dust storms that battered fields in the Midwest. Amid these challenges, farmers have found resilience in maintaining yields through their soils’ health. Clint Orr has spent the past two decades moving from conventional tillage toward no-till and strip-till with cover crops on every acre of his central Indiana farm. While Orr isn’t chasing record yields, his focus on regenerative practices has made his operation more weather resistant. “We’ve increased water infiltration and organic matter,” he said. “We don’t know what the weather is going to deal us, but we tend to be a lot more resilient.” 

A Living System

What began as a strategy to reduce erosion and break up compaction through cover crop roots has evolved into a holistic approach to soil health, Orr said. He equates it to switching from a chemistry experiment to a biology experiment. 

Building soil health starts with fostering a more active microbial community, especially by reducing tillage and increasing the presence of living roots through cover crops, explained Rob Myers, director of the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at the University of Missouri. These practices stimulate beneficial microbes such as mycorrhizal fungi, which help plants access water and nutrients and improve soil structure. Combined with no-till, cover crops enhance rainfall infiltration, reduce evaporation, and improve pore space and organic matter.  

“A key part of resiliency for yield is being able to moderate between excessively wet periods and excessively dry periods,” Myers said. 

Weathering the Drought

Orr said he saw the benefits of cover crops during the historic 2012 drought, during which fields with terminated cover crop stands fared significantly better than fields without. “In fields that were not cover cropped, we had yield reductions of about 35%,” he said. “On the fields where that cover crop mat held in moisture, we only experienced 15% yield reduction.” 

Brian Foster, a landowner in north-central Iowa who raises corn and soybeans with his partners, Dennis and Scott Strother, echoed those benefits. After decades of no-till, strip-till, and cover cropping, Foster said water infiltration and holding capacity have transformed his fields and his bottom line. “We’ve probably seen about a 50% yield increase in both corn and soybeans,” he said, though he credited genetics as well. “The residue holds snow, the organic matter holds moisture, and that gives us more consistent yields.”

Wicking Away Moisture

During wet springs, like the one the Midwest experienced in 2019, actively growing cover crops, such as cereal rye, help dry out saturated soils through transpiration, Myers explained. According to the USDA’s 2020 National Cover Crop Survey, 78.6% of respondents reported that wet weather had delayed planting. But 78% of the cover crop users said they had no prevent plant claims despite the challenging growing season.

Increased Yields, Decreased Costs

Even in the absence of extreme weather, there is still a return on investment (ROI) for cover crops, Myers said. Based on seven years of data from the National Cover Crop Survey, after about three years of use, cover crops led to modest yield increases — around 5% for soybeans and 3% for corn — on comparable soils and management systems. 

There are caveats, Myers said; most commonly, yield reductions can occur the first year or two a cover crop is used, particularly with cereal rye before corn. 

Selecting cover crops that complement the cash crop rather than compete with it can be a challenge, said Orr, who noted he has learned from trial and error on the mixes that work best on his farm. “When we first started, we tried to come up with different mixes, depending on our goals for each field,” he said. “While that was a noble cause, managing multiple cover crop mixes with different planting and termination times proved difficult. So, we’ve evolved to a standard mix ahead of corn, and another ahead of soybeans.”

Ahead of corn, Orr said he has found success with a mix of barley, hairy vetch, oats, and rapeseed. Ahead of soybeans, he uses cereal rye, clover, rapeseed, and kale. He said he has found his seed suppliers to be a valuable resource for species selection that fit his operation and management.

Cover crops and no-till can also lead to ROI through reduced input costs. According to the national survey, farmers with several years of cover crops reduced their fertilizer or herbicide costs, Myers said. 

Orr said he has found this to be true. While he does not select cover crops based on providing a nitrogen source, the increase in his soil’s organic matter has resulted in a 15–20 pounds-per-acre nitrogen reduction due to increased mineralization.

“Our yields are comparable to our neighbors’ with better ROI because of fewer trips and less fuel,” Orr said. He added that grants and cost-share dollars reduce the cost of sowing cover crops.

Realistically, it takes about three years to break even on cover crops due to up-front costs, Myers said. “By year four and beyond, farmers often see a net profit, thanks to modest yield gains and reduced input expenses,” he explained.

While this deters some farmers, Myers pointed out that other management strategies, such as equipment purchases or applying lime to affect soil pH, also have a multiyear payoff. 

Orr said he is focused long term on resilient soils. “Even if all the cost-share dollars disappeared, I’d still do it,” he said. “It just feels like the right thing to do, because at the end of the day, we’re working to regenerate healthy soil.”