The Illinois Department of Agriculture announced application details of the 2025 Fall Covers for Spring Savings Cover Crop Incentive Program. Pre-enrollment opens 8am Wednesday December 4 and final submissions will be accepted starting 8am Monday December 16.
A total of 190,000 acres are available (of which 40,000 acres are thanks to Illinois’ participation in the U.S. Gulf Hypoxia Task Force).
Funding is first come, first served. Last year’s acreage allotment was met in less than an hour, and more than 241,650 acres were requested.
You can prepare and validate your submission information starting December 4, 2024 at https://apps.agr.illinois.gov/BLWR_CoverCrop/
Applications can be saved and edited. And be sure to be ready to click submit at 8am Monday December 16, 2024.
Download IDOA’s program handout.
Here’s some fine print – see more details on IDOA’s press release and IDOA’s program webpage.
The program is applicable for acreage in Illinois seeded to cover crops in the fall of 2024 that will be planted to an insurable crop in 2025. Eligible applicants will receive a premium discount up to $5 per acre on the following year’s crop insurance, depending on individual crop insurance policies, for every cover crop acre enrolled and verified in the program.
Applicants will be required to certify their cover crops through their local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office before applying. Applicants will also need their current FSA-578 and federal crop insurance policy number(s) for the application.
The discount program was designed to promote additional acres of cover crops that are not covered by other state or federal incentives. IDOA will use a combination of tools to verify that acres applied for through this program are planted in cover crops. The program is only applicable for those with coverage through the United States Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency (USDA-RMA) crop insurance program. Confirmed applications will be forwarded to the USDA-RMA for processing and for application of premium discounts to 2025 crop insurance invoices.
Some insights about the history and development of the cover crop program are on the Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership webpage.
See a profile of Frank Rademacher and his implementation of cover crops on the family farm on American Farmland Trust’s webpage or YouTube channel.
