Improving soil health through cover crops

Like many farmers, Jeff Frey sees the soil as his livelihood, so he does what he can to protect and improve this vital resource beneath his feet.

“I remember one afternoon we had a thunderstorm that washed mud out into the road and I could actually see some of my freshly planted soybeans in with the mud,” says Frey, who raises grains on 700 acres in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. “I’ve been no-tilling for a long time, but at that point I knew that what I was doing was not adequate.”

In this new video, see how this experience prompted Frey to begin planting cover crops and how, after seeing the benefits, he partnered with a Penn State professor on a SARE-funded project to convince other farmers they should do the same.