The Northeast Cover Crops Council (NECCC) is a comprehensive resource for cover cropping information in the Northeastern United States.
The NECCC has developed web-based cover crop decision support tools to support cover crop adoption and maximize the benefits of cover crops in the Northeast. This tool assists farmers by making fertilizer recommendations based on the amount of nitrogen released to subsequent crops following cover crop termination.
The Cover Crop Nitrogen Calculator is a user-friendly tool to estimate the nitrogen release from decomposing cover crop residues over time and make nitrogen fertilizer recommendations for the subsequent crop accounting for cover crop nitrogen release.
The tool is based on laboratory and on-farm cover crop decomposition studies across diverse environments and accounts for decomposition of both surface or incorporated cover crop residues. User’s input field location, cover crop biomass, cover crop nitrogen concentration, and if available, cover crop residue chemistry and water content at termination. The calculator automatically imports local soil properties from the NRCS Soil Survey Geographic database (SSURGO), daily soil moisture and temperature data, and hourly weather data. Outputs include estimated cover crop nitrogen release and the amount of residue remaining over time following termination and the recommended amount of additional nitrogen fertilizer required.