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 in identifying the appropriate cover crop species for their location and cropping system management goals.
The Species Selector Tool allows the user to identify cover crop species that are most appropriate for a given field based on the user’s specific cover cropping goals (e.g. improving organic matter, preventing erosion, nitrogen scavenging or fixation, etc.).
The Selector tool accounts for soil type and soil drainage as well as cash crop growth windows to identify and rank cover crop species based on user goals. The tool also provides information on ideal planting windows. The selection can be further refined to account for specific desired growth traits, environmental tolerances, planting and growth windows, support for mycorrhizae, weed suppression, and termination methods. The tool also includes a Cover Crop Explorer option that allows users to investigate and learn about all cover crop species that would be appropriate to the user’s USDA plant hardiness zone.