What began as a doctoral project at the University of Michigan is now spreading like red clover across the Great Lakes region to help farmers improve their soil and prevent fertilizer from washing into waterways.

Although it took root at a research university, the program’s growth has been supported by hundreds of fields owned by farmers like David Halsey of Adrian. Halsey and his peers have enlisted their fields as living labs and partnered with experts from U-M and other institutions to study a powerful but underused practice: cover cropping.

The Great Lakes Cover Crops Project officially launched about five years ago. Between then and fall 2025, more than 225 farmers from six states have enrolled nearly 600 fields in the project. Of those fields, 158 are in Michigan, the most of any state, where you can find hairy vetch, crimson clover, cereal rye and other plants growing after farmers have harvested their cash crops. The project’s goal is to make cover cropping easier for growers to adopt, not only to benefit their farms, but also lessen the burden agriculture puts on neighboring ecosystems.

Halsey first learned about the project from Jennifer Blesh, then an associate professor at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), who was presenting about it at an event for farmers. A doctoral student on Blesh’s research team, Etienne Sutton (PhD ’24), who has since graduated from SEAS, was spearheading the project and, with support from the nonprofit Michigan Agricultural Advancement, the team was recruiting farmers to help collect data on cover cropping practices.

Cover crops offer a bounty of attractive benefits, but realizing their full potential is a complex challenge for farmers, dependent on a host of variables. It’s so complex, in fact, that most farmers don’t use cover crops.

Read the full press release on the Michigan News website.