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UGA Extension contacts:
Julia Gaskin and Miguel Cabrera

Cover crops have many benefits for farmers, including erosion control, weed suppression, and feeding the food soil web. Cover crops also play an important role in fertility, particularly for nitrogen.

One of the challenges facing farmers who use cover crops is quantifying the available nitrogen supplies to the following cash crop by the decomposing cover crop residues and how they might change their fertilizer management to account for this. This publication is intended to educate farmers on the nitrogen cycle, cover crops, and nitrogen; how nitrogen is released from cover crops; and the new Cover Crop Nitrogen Availability Calculator, including the steps necessary to use the Calculator.


Published by University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. For more information or guidance, contact your local Extension office.

The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (working cooperatively with Fort Valley State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the counties of Georgia) offers its educational programs, assistance, and materials to all people without regard to age, color, disability, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, or veteran status, and is an Equal Opportunity Institution.