Factors reducing climate benefits of cover crops

Factors that contribute to and offset cover crops' net climate mitigation, in metric tons CO₂ equivalent per acre. Values shown are averages and primary estimates for non-legume cover cropping in the U.S. Corn Belt.

Soil carbon sequestration & N₂O
CO₂ from on-farm fuel use
Seed production (N₂O only)
Indirect land use change
Additionality
Total
Soil carbon sequestration and N₂O values are for the Corn Belt, estimated with COMET-Farm and reported in USDA (2023). Fuel CO₂ calculated using average diesel use across planting and termination types, assuming winter kill used 75% of the time and herbicide termination 25%, as assumed in USDA (2023). N₂O from seed production from Kaye & Quemada (2017). Indirect land use change calculated using Lobell & Villoria (2023), assuming 5% TFP reduction in U.S. and amortizing over 30 years. 54% additionality assumed based on estimate for Iowa from Sawadgo & Plastina (2021).
Chart: The Breakthrough InstituteGet the dataCreated with Datawrapper