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Cover Crop ROI & All That Matters

Crunching the Numbers Via Biological Bookkeeping

By Mike Seifert
July 27, 2022

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Note: Earlier this summer, Land Stewardship Project soil health organizer Alex Romano reached out to one of our soil health steering committee members, Mike Seifert, who farms near Jordan, Minn., with his wife, Dana, and father, Big Mike, to ask for his thoughts on “return on investment” from cover crops. She wanted to know his approach to and considerations regarding those calculations when making decisions about cover cropping strategies. He was happy to respond to her question. But he found that as he sat down to consider the question and write about it, thoughts that emerged brought up deeper, heart-level questions for him. These are issues that farmers and non-farmers alike grapple with, but that can be difficult to verbalize, let alone wrap our heads around. Members of LSP’s soil health team were moved by the perspectives and deeper questions that Mike outlined with such clarity and thoughtfulness. So, with his permission, we’re offering up the farmer’s response to the “ROI” question:

Mike Seifert seeding cover crops on his farm near Jordan, Minn.

Oh boy, that’s a big, open-ended question. When I saw your e-mail come in a couple of days ago I said to myself, “I’m going to have to sit down in the office to answer this one.” So I hope you don’t mind if I riff on it for a while over my morning coffee, and try to outline the multiple perspectives I have on return on investment and cover crops.

So, when I hear the term “return on investment,” my first reaction is a financial one, since that term is rooted in matters of finance. As such, let’s tackle that aspect of the term first.

From a farm bookkeeping perspective, cover crops are an added expense, and the financial benefit we as farmers get from using cover crops is this amorphous thing that’s hard to pin down. All of the physical benefits from cover crops — improved soil structure, nutrient cycling, feeding the soil biological community, reduced erosion, armoring the soil surface, potential feed for livestock, alleviating compaction, adding organic matter, and on and on — are wonderful, desirable enhancements, but they’re really hard to quantify and translate to financial numbers, and a lot of them are cumulative over several years. I suspect some benefits are even exponential — that is, once you get your soil on a healthy path to recovery and practice careful management, the feedback loop will become positive and actually accelerate until the soil environment achieves a more natural balance.

But how do you put a dollar sign on any of that? It’s absolutely nothing like traditional agronomy, which loves easy charts and figures. Two hundred units of nitrogen will grow 200-bushel corn! Nothing to it! If the fertilizer is affordable, it’s a slam dunk! Just ignore the part where you’re destroying the natural cycle of things. We’ll worry about that later.

So for me, cover crops have to be taken as a long game when it comes to return on investment. And since I really can’t quantify how much my farm production will increase as a result of using cover crops, I just have to take it on faith that it will, and that I will more reliably and consistently produce successful cash crops — particularly on my most fragile and degraded acres. Four years into a method of farming that includes cover cropping, I’d say we’re starting to see that, but I think the best is yet to come, so we’ll continue to be patient and try to do the right things.

Now, if cover crop ROI needs to be taken as a long term investment, how do we reconcile the extra expense in the short term? For me, that one was easy: we pair it with no-till. I think the money we’ve saved in fuel alone each year has covered the extra cost of cover crop seed. Then factor in reduced equipment costs and time savings, and it starts to be a big win. This year, we’re growing our own winter rye for seed, so that’ll knock expenses down even more. So there are lots of ways to offset the short term costs which then, over time, become another part of the long term financial benefit of cover crops.  But you have to combine complementary practices to really get the full benefit of each.

No-till and cover crops augment one another. Diversifying your crop rotation and incorporating livestock each add another reinforcing layer to the financial structure. They also add more work and management! But I think the financial benefits outweigh the added time and attention, and open up more opportunities to be flexible — which is increasingly important in a world that constantly throws us financial and climatological curve balls.

So that’s my take on the financial aspect of ROI and cover crops.

But now I’m going to stray into another aspect of all of this, which is more of the moral and ethical aspect to regenerative agriculture. I’m currently reading two books.  The first is The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells, and the second is Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. It’s actually a pretty good pairing, because the optimistic and insightful prose of Kimmerer’s book pretty effectively mitigates the sheer terror of Wells, who is out to demonstrate with evidence that when it comes to climate change, we’re already waist-deep in the rapidly rising shit and just trying to pretend the smell is normal.

The fact is that in the coming years and decades, our food production system is going to be under an enormous and increasing strain. If we can’t figure out how to exist on this planet without merging our civilization into a more harmonious rhythm with the natural world, then any talk of financial ROI — whether it be in cover crops or real estate or the latest share price of Tesla stock — is all going to become a very moot point. You can’t put a dollar amount on the survival of our species and the other roughly 8.7 million species with whom we share this delicate biosphere. We consistently fail to see that we’re completely dependent on the very biological systems that we are methodically destroying, and that has to change. It just simply has to. Right now.

I could go on and on, but that’s a depressing subject, so I’ll get to the point. When it comes to cover crops and other agricultural practices that help preserve and revitalize the ecosystem, I personally only look at the financial aspect of all of this as much as necessary. I do my bookkeeping and make sure we pay our bills so we can keep going, but I try not to let the financial side of agriculture cloud my vision of the larger picture. We need solutions, so I try to keep over 50% of my focus on finding and experimenting with practices that are going to make our food production system more resilient, while also sequestering carbon and providing habitat for as many of our fellow terrestrial organisms as possible. If every agricultural producer started shifting to that mindset, we’d be getting somewhere.

In my mind, the real return on investment from all of this will be a habitable (hopefully even pleasant!) planet to live on, and the ability to look in my kid’s eyes and tell her I did everything I could to be a part of the solution.

In episode 269 of LSP’s Ear to the Ground podcast, Mike Seifert talks about how a creepy crawly experience in the dark of night convinced him he was on the right soil health path. A recent Land Stewardship Letter article describes the Seifert family’s transition to no-till and cover cropping. For more on how to build soil health profitably, check out LSP’s Soil Builders’ Network web page.

Category: Blog
Tags: Braiding Sweetgrass • climate change • cover crops • Dana Seifert • Mike Seifert • ROI • soil health • Uninhabitable Earth

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June 2025

Saturday June 21

1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Farm-Scale Deep Winter Greenhouse Tour
Saturday June 21
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Farm-Scale Deep Winter Greenhouse Tour
Owl Bluff Farm, 12314 County Road 4 Houston, MN 55943

The University of Minnesota Extension Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDP) and Owl Bluff Farm will co-host an open house to celebrate the completion of the state’s first farm-scale deep winter greenhouse. The event, held on the farm about 45 minutes east of Rochester, is free and open to the public. RSVPs are required at z.umn.edu/OwlBluffOpenHouse.

Wednesday June 25

2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
LSP-PFI Grazing Field Day at Hoosier Ridge Ranch
Wednesday June 25
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
LSP-PFI Grazing Field Day at Hoosier Ridge Ranch
Hoosier Ridge Ranch, 15998 Wabasha County Rd 26, Altura, MN 55910, USA

Over the last 50 years, livestock have left many farms. Eric Heins is doing the reverse: bringing cattle – and their poop, pee and hooves – back to his land. Come see how Eric is using his Normande-shorthorn crosses in a variety of grazing situations. During this Land Stewardship Project-Practical Farmers of Iowa field day, you can view permanent pasture, where Eric (like everyone) is battling the cool-season grass takeover. You’ll also learn how Eric is using his cattle in cover crop mixes, prairie and woodlands.

Since purchasing the farm in 2020, Eric has converted the cropland to pasture. He also custom-farms a diverse rotation of crops, covers and small grains on neighboring farms, including an established prairie on Iowa Department of Natural Resources land. A possible bonus: Eric is hoping to have virtual fence collars by the time of the field day, but no guarantees!

A meal featuring Hoosier Ridge Ranch burgers will follow the field day.

See & Discuss

  • Cash-flowing the conversion to pasture on owned versus rented cropland
  • Stockpiling pasture for winter grazing
  • Mechanical buckthorn clearing for silvopasture
  • Grazing agreements on DNR prairie and neighboring cropland
  • A sudangrass mix after a canning pea crop
  • An extended rotation with oats, barley and Kernza

For details and to register, click here.

Saturday June 28

4:00 pm – 8:00 pm
LSP's Boots & Roots: A Celebration of Land & People
Saturday June 28
4:00 pm – 8:00 pm
LSP's Boots & Roots: A Celebration of Land & People
Dream Acres, Co Hwy 8, Spring Valley, MN 55975, USA

Join Land Stewardship Project members and supporters to kick-start the Driftless summer with an evening of good food, good music, and good times. We’ll have activities for all ages that will get you out in nature, exploring the connection between our region’s farms and your community’s food, land, and water. Bring a side or dessert to share for dinner, and the Dream Acres wood-fired oven will provide locally-sourced pizzas and flat breads. Dinner will be followed by live music and contra dancing by the Crater City String Band.  

To reserve a spot, click here.

Camping sites are available at nearby Masonic Park and Forestville Mystery Cave and Lake Louise State Parks. Camping at Masonic is rustic,first-come-first-serve, free, and does not require a reservation. Fillmore County, who manages the park, only asks that you call the dispatchers at507-765-3874 when you arrive with your vehicle information and phone number in case of emergency. State Park reservations cost $25 a night and can be made online.

July 2025

Saturday July 12

All Day
Fishing, Farming & Food: Rush Creek’s Fish Kill Anniversary & Why it Matters
Saturday July 12
Fishing, Farming & Food: Rush Creek’s Fish Kill Anniversary & Why it Matters
Rush Creek area in southeastern Minnesota

The Land Stewardship Project will mark the anniversary of a major fish kill in southeastern Minnesota that spawned citizen action and led to new public policy around how such events are reported. We will have fly fishing classes, birding opportunities, discussions about how regenerative farming systems can support healthy soil and clean water, good food, and fun music.  

More details are forthcoming. For more information, contact LSP’s Kate Rowe at krowe@landstewardshipproject.org.

Tuesday July 15

5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Organic Fruit & Vegetable Field Day
Tuesday July 15
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Organic Fruit & Vegetable Field Day
1805 Dudley Ave, Falcon Heights, MN 55113, USA

Join U of M researchers and Extension for updates on organic fruit and vegetable research and tour the Student Organic Farm and the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station in Saint Paul. Topics include: organic insect management, integrating livestock into vegetable farms, new crops for Minnesota, irrigation strategies, and more. Free to the public.
 
For details and to register, click here.

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