Cover crops have a lot of benefits, but they aren’t profitable for farmers unless livestock are involved, according to an Iowa State University  (ISU) economic analysis.

“The most positive thing I can say is grazing or harvesting biomass for forage can make net returns possible for cover crops,” said Alejandro Plastina, an ISU Extension economist. “Without that, even with cost share, the net returns are negative.”

Plastina led a two-year project analyzing financial data of more than 400...