USDA researchers just announced the most common cover crops after studying data from recent years.
In 2016, 90 percent of corn fields used a grass or small grain cover crop, such as rye, winter wheat, or oats. Rye was more than twice as common as winter wheat for grain fields.
Rye and winter wheat were also the most commonly used cover crops on soybean fields in 2018.
Winter wheat took first place in 2015 on cotton fields.