For much of the Midwest, this has been one of the coldest winters in several decades. Chicago hasn't seen a winter this frigid in the past 30 years, and ranks as the 8th coldest average winter temperature since 1871. They have also recorded nearly 60 inches of snow through the first week of February.

In states like Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Indiana, adoption of cover crops has spread like good news, but in other states, cover crop adoption is slow, even stunted.