Image Credit: Philip Sylvester, Extension Ag Agent, University of Delaware
Yes, but farmers must terminate the cover crop before the deadline listed in NRCS’s Cover Crop Termination Guidelines for Non-Irrigated Cropland. In Maryland, farmers must terminate the cover crop by tilling, winterkill, or herbicide spraying methods (but not harvesting alone) at planting. Or after planting, farmers must terminate the cover crop within 5 days and before the cash crop emerges. If harvesting the cover crop, then the producer would want to follow-up with terminating the cover crop according to the NRCS Guidelines, such as by spraying herbicide within 5 days of planting but before the commodity crop emerges. RMA will rely on NRCS’s determinations on if cover crops were terminated according to the Guidelines. As always, it is best to check with a crop insurance agent before planting a cover crop to ensure it does not impact crop insurance eligibility for the commercial crop.
