“Can cover crops work in Nevada—and which ones should I use?”

These are common questions from producers, often followed by excuses that they won’t work here: our short growing season, incompatibility with alfalfa, interference with dairy-quality hay, water competition, or cost. Each concern contains some truth. What’s often missing, however, is a clear understanding of what cover crops are and why we plant them.

What Are Cover Crops?

A cover crop is a plant—or mix of plants—grown primarily to improve soil health. It may be seeded before, after, or even interseeded within a cash crop. Keith Berns of Green Cover Seeds in Nebraska calls them the “Swiss Army knife of soil health.”
Because their benefits vary, it is up to the farmer to define the goals for using cover crops. Do you want to:

•  Reduce erosion?
•  Improve soil biology and beneficial insects?
•  Enhance water infiltration and availability?
• Suppress weeds, pests, or disease?
• Increase biodiversity?

Your objectives provide the criteria for evaluating success.

Cover Crop Categories

Most cover crops are annuals, grouped into four broad categories (with some perennials occasionally used):

• Legumes (e.g., arrowleaf clover, field pea, berseem clover, hairy vetch) – Fix nitrogen, release it quickly, aid weed suppression, and attract beneficial insects.
• Grasses (e.g., rye, wheat, triticale, oats, annual ryegrass) – Add organic matter, stop erosion, immobilize excess nitrogen, and suppress weeds.
• Brassicas – (e.g., forage kale, rapeseed, turnip, white mustard) Break up soil compaction, suppress weeds, reduce certain soil-borne diseases and nematodes, and provide moderate nitrogen cycling.
• Other broadleaves – (e.g., flax, buckwheat, safflower, sunflower) contribute diversity, canopy structure, and add forage value when some portion of the cover crop is used for grazing or cutting as hay.

Diverse mixes often outperform single species because they provide multiple benefits simultaneously - nutrient cycling, organic matter, compaction relief, and improved soil structure.

Soil Health and Ecosystem Benefits

Cover crops support the six soil health principles, especially keeping soil covered and maintaining living roots. According to SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education), they provide ecosystem services such as erosion control, biodiversity, water management, and nutrient cycling.

Moisture management is a particular concern in arid Nevada. While all plants use water, terminating cover crops before seed development greatly reduces consumption. Fall-planted cover crops can also capture and hold snow, while overwintering cover crops used excess spring moisture, allowing for earlier field access. When used correctly within your context, the net water usage is the same or less with cover crops than without.

Healthy soils developed through cover cropping improve water infiltration, soil aggregation, water-holding capacity, and reduce the risk of soil compaction, making fields more resilient in both dry and wet years. As Kate Smith of Green Cover Seeds notes: “The addition of diverse root exudates and the microbial activity that follows lead to huge soil health benefits like improved aggregation and increased organic matter. Cover crops help farmers hit that ‘just right’ amount of water more consistently.”

Each plant species releases unique carbon compounds through its roots, feeding different microbial communities. This underground economy of nutrients and moisture becomes stronger with diversity. Benefits include:

• Multiple root depths that access different soil layers
• Layered canopies that capture more sunlight
• Reduced pest and disease risk
• Better forage nutrition for livestock

Integrating animals with cover crops further enhances the soil food web and accelerates improvements in the four ecosystem processes (energy flow, water cycle, nutrient cycle, and community dynamics). In expanding the value of cover crops, producers, Joe Frey has turned to grazing as his preferred method of cover crop termination. Grazing increases his revenues and provides substantial biological and structural benefits to his land, while fitting well into his overall production system and regenerative context.

Practical Considerations

Cover cropping can be simple—a single species after harvest—or more complex with diverse mixes. Costs rise with diversity, so your farm’s context and goals should guide decisions. The best approach is to start simple. While we need to aspire for diversity in the soil, a simple small grain as a cover is one of the easiest to begin with.

Economics and Long-Term Value

Can cover crops pay off? Sometimes immediately—especially if used for grazing or herbicide-resistant weed control. More often, benefits appear in the second or third year as compaction is reduced, nutrient cycling improves, and soil health builds. Cover crops should be seen as a long-term investment, not just a short-term yield tool.

So, Can We Grow Cover Crops in Nevada?

The answer is yes. But recognizing success may require a shift in perspective—from focusing solely on yield and annual profit to valuing soil health, water use efficiency, and long-term sustainability. None of us are here to farm for this season only, so merely focusing on the yield and profits from this season misses the bigger picture of sustainable, economical and ecological production over time.

Asking “Which cover crop will work in Nevada?” is like asking “How long is a piece of string?” The answer depends on your operation, goals, rotation, equipment, and budget, i.e., your context. There is no one-size-fits-all solution—and that’s the point. Each farm’s soils and systems are unique, and they change over time, either positively or negatively, depending upon your management decisions.

The use of cover crops to improve soil health cannot be reduced to a simple recipe or formula. Rather successful use cover crops are part of a natural and holistic approach to farming that utilizes and emphasizes the six soil health principles through a process of observation, experimentation, and adaptive management. When used thoughtfully, they can transform soil health, reduce reliance on synthetic inputs (e.g., fertilizers, herbicides), improve resilience, and ultimately make farming more profitable and rewarding.