MDA Deadline for Planting Cover Crops Extended to November 14

Bluestem Farm (Chestertown)
Farm Manager Evan Miles (photo by Edwin Remsberg)

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Due to a late harvest, the Maryland Department of Agriculture has extended the November 5 planting deadline for farmers who have signed up to plant cover crops this fall with the Maryland Agricultural Water Quality Cost-Share (MACS) Program.  

Farmers now have until November 14, 2014 to plant qualifying small grains and brassicas (plants in the cabbage family) on their fields to help control soil erosion and recover any unused plant nutrients remaining on their fields from summer crops.  The extension is only available to farmers who use the following planting methods:  no till, conventional, or broadcast with light, minimum or vertical tillage. Farmers must certify their cover crop acreage with the local soil conservation district by November 21, 2014 in order to be reimbursed for associated seed, labor and equipment costs.

“Heavy rains delayed the spring planting this year,” said Maryland Agriculture Secretary Buddy Hance. “As a result, farmers are only just now harvesting their summer corn crops. Extending the planting deadline will allow farmers to plant more acres of protective cover crops on their fields to achieve greater water quality benefits for streams, rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.”

Cover crops are cereal grains that grow in cool weather. They help slow down rainwater runoff during the winter, when the soil would otherwise be exposed, while recycling any nutrients remaining in the soil from the previous summer crop.  During the 2013-2014 planting season, Maryland farmers planted 423,212 acres of cover crops on their fields statewide.  The planting helped prevent an estimated 2.5 million pounds of nitrogen and 84,600 pounds of phosphorus from reaching waterways. Approximately 97 percent of these cover crops were planted in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

Earlier this summer, Maryland farmers signed up to plant a record 641,400 acres of cover crops this fall. Maryland farmers exceeded the Phase I and II Watershed Implementation Plan milestone for cover crops in 2011 and 2013 and are on track to exceed it again next year with this new record enrollment acreage. 

Maryland’s Cover Crop program is funded by the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund and the Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund.  For additional information on the Cover Crop Program, farmers should visit their local soil conservation district or contact the MACS office at 410-841-5864.

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