Last month, the Illinois Department of Agriculture opened applications for its second annual Fall Covers for Spring Savings Program -- which provides a crop insurance discount for each acre of cover crop a farmer plants. Funding was allotted to compensate up to 50,000 acres.

The program filled up in less than 24 hours.

Cover crops provide a myriad of benefits -- from protecting surrounding waterways to improving soil health and preventing weeds. And the first year of Illinois’ cover crop program kept the carbon equivalent of 5,000 cars off the road and 4,000 truckloads of sediment out of waterways, according to Liz Moran Stelk, executive director of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance.

Currently, only 3-6% of Illinois’ cropland utilizes cover crops. But farmers’ interest in the program has skyrocketed since its launch two years ago. So much so that the program can’t keep up.

Reynold says it’s time to figure out how to ramp up the program.

Read the full article about cover cropping in Illinois by Dana Cronin at Harvest Public Media.