Press release: ‘A win-win’ — Report finds new crops could boost farmer profits while protecting MN’s waters

Hand holding jar of water in field of 'living cover' crops.

Photo by Dodd Demas for FMR/FGP.

For immediate release, January, 4, 2024.
(Free to republish with attributions and links intact.)

The first-of-its-kind analysis presents unused winter cropland as an untapped opportunity

What happens beneath the snow that blankets Minnesota’s croplands every winter?

Usually, nothing. After the fall harvest, almost all that soil sits empty and unutilized until the next spring.

A new report suggests this is a missed opportunity — and that by covering those unused acres with harvestable crops, the state could increase farm earnings, improve soil health and clean up the state’s waters.

“Year after year in Minnesota, we see millions of acres of cropland left barren and exposed to the elements from late fall into early spring,” said Trevor Russell (link is external), water program director with nonprofit Friends of the Mississippi River (link is external). “That’s seven or eight months of no productivity.”

Russel is one of the lead authors of “Putting Down Roots (link is external),” the new report that offers a clear-eyed analysis of crops being developed by the University of Minnesota’s Forever Green Initiative (link is external). The researchers found that increased adoption of these crops, even at modest levels, could significantly reduce overall nitrogen loss (23%) and soil erosion (35%) by 2050, while also blunting greenhouse gas emissions.

This is possible because the crops provide “continuous living cover,” explained Forever Green’s Associate Director Mitch Hunter (link is external). That means live roots in the ground year-round to anchor the soil, while above, green growth helps keep excess nutrients from escaping into nearby waters.

What makes these crops special is the financial upside, with the report projecting a potential 20% increase in on-farm profits come 2050 due to growing more of these crops.

“We sometimes call these ‘cash cover crops’ because they can be harvested and sold,” Hunter said. “That gives them a significant advantage over conventional cover crops.”

Several of the in-development crops are “winter annuals” that are planted in the fall and harvested the following spring, slotting into cropland that otherwise isn’t being used — with minimal impact on conventional summer annuals such as corn and soybeans.

Winter camelina and domesticated pennycress are prime examples of this.

The report estimates that 5.5 million acres of these winter annual oilseeds could be planted in Minnesota over the next quarter century. Driving this is the rapidly growing demand for cleaner transportation. Both crops can be converted into renewable biofuels that produce lower greenhouse gas emissions than standard diesel or jet fuel.

“This is an opportunity to turn bare, unused cropland acres into powerful engines for a healthier environment and economy,” said Russell. “I call it a win-win.”

“Putting Down Roots” was released by Friends of the Mississippi River (link is external)Ecotone Analytics (link is external) and the Forever Green Partnership (link is external). A 4-page overview (PDF (link is external)) and the full report are available to download via fmr.org/clc-report (link is external).
 

Report overview

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Photos

High-resolution downloadable images with credits are available in this online album (link is external).  

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