The Stomping Ground – April 29, 2026
By Hans Schmitz, Technical Assistance Specialist
Indiana Ag Nutrient Alliance
Indiana a Leader in Cover Crops Yet Plenty of Room To Grow
Indiana is a conservation practice leader for the nation, yet we’re only at 10%ish planted acres to cover crops. Our state is committed to data collection, and unlike many other states, Indiana Conservation Partnership employees drive the state each year, slowing at specific points and marking whether certain fields have green living cover.
This data is then aggregated and totals released by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. This data serves as one of the more important sources of knowing whether cover crop adoption is increasing over time around the state. The chart below illustrates the trends of the cover crop data in the Hoosier state.
In 2020, we see a spike that is not a result necessarily of more plantings. The data-collection drive used to take place in the late fall when some fields were not yet green enough to be detected. The data accumulation switched to late winter/early spring in 2020, which resulted in the corresponding bump in acres. Also worthy to note is that winter wheat acres are included in the survey. If we take harvested winter wheat acres according to the National Agriculture Statistics Service out of the mix, the result is the graph below.
We can see that, as the last decade came to a close, we were reliably close to one million acres in cover crops. As we have entered the new decade, that number jumps to 1.4 million. Perhaps much of that is attributable to the timing of the survey, but in a state with around 10.5 million corn and soybean acres, much more can be done to promote this conservation practice adoption. Indiana has room to “take it up a notch” and let’s use program dollars to help where applicable.