Farmers in the Western region including California can select and decide the recommended cover crop which is suitable for their farm by using an online tool and clicking 5 simple steps. The Western Cover Crops Council with a collaboration between Precision Sustainable Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, developed and released a free online user-friendly tool for growers to choose cover crops which is suitable for their farm unique situation and soil health improvement goals. With the addition of Western region (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming) the current version of this tool resources for growers in 50 states. Below is the demonstration of how to use the tool step by step.
Step 1. Select your state
Step 2. Select your Farm Address and Click "Next"
Step 3 will show your site conditions, and you can select your drainage type of your soil if the default setting shows different. Then click "Next"
Step 4. At this step, you can select up to 3 goals how you want cover crops selection to improve your soil health, choose the window for your cash crop and click "Next".
Step 5. This is the final step showing the recommend cover crop groups as well as crop calendar for different cover crop.
If you have another farm at different location, you can restart the tool and follow the step to get recommended cover crop groups for your other farm.
Reference:
Michael Hsu (2025). New online tool helps growers choose cover crops | UC Agriculture and Natural Resources