Building Knowledge about Wisconsin's Cover Crops: A farmer research data collection project

Wisconsin farmers are sharing how they use cover crops and helping to improve cover cropping for farmers all around the state.

A state wide network of collaborating citizen science farmers fill out a survey about their cover crop practices, take photos of cover crop growth, and provide biomass samples. We pay participants an honorarium, and share personalized cover crop nutrient analysis data in addition to total biomass production and forage quality information. We also incorporate farmer feedback in research and outreach programming, including the Wisconsin Water and Soil Health Conference in December.

Explore our Interactive Data Dashboard

*Locations of participating farmers for the 202*3-4 season.

Crimping winter rye near Darlington, Wisconsin. Photo by Dan Smith.

Project collaborator and UW agronomist Gregg Sanford discusses his work on comparative cropping systems and why farmers participating in citizen science is key to improving agriculture.

See below for our research reports and articles. Questions? Contact Dan Smith, UW-Madison Nutrient and Pest Management Program, dhsmith@wisc.edu, 608-219-5170; or Ricardo Costa Silva, Wisconsin Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, r.costasilva@tnc.org, 573 639-8971.

Original research article: “Building cover crop expertise with citizen science in the upper Midwest: supporting farmer innovation in a time of change,” Front. Sustain. Food Syst., 19 May 2023, M. Ingram, Participatory Action Research Scientist, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute.
Read the 2022 Season Report
- 2022 Season 2-page Summary2023_Summary_Citizen Science Report
Read the 2021 Season Report
Read the 2020 Season Report

Funding and support provided by: The Wisconsin Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and the Wisconsin USDA-NRCS

Citizen Science project collaborators include:

Mrill Ingram, Participatory Action Research Scientist, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, project lead and social scientist
Daniel H. Smith, Nutrient and Pest Management Agronomist and Southwest Regional Specialist, University of Wisconsin-Madison NPM program
Ricardo Costa-Silva, Agronomist and Agricultural Strategy Manager at The Nature Conservancy, Wisconsin Chapter
Greg Sanford, Associate Scientist, UW Madison Agronomy Department and Manager, Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial (WICST)
Jose Franco, Research Agronomist/Agroecologist, U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, USDA-ARS
Margaret Krome, Policy Program Director, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute
David Evans, interactive data visualization, Evans Geospatial