Midwest Cover Crops Council appoints program manager

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Midwest Cover Crops Council has responded to increasing interest in cover crops across the region by hiring its first program manager, a Purdue Extension educator.

Anna Morrow began her new role with the MCCC as a staff member in Purdue University's Department of Agronomy on July 1. She now works out of Extension's Shelby County office and will be on the university's West Lafayette campus as needed. 

"We are excited to have an experienced county Extension educator join our team as our first program manager," said Eileen Kladivko, professor of agronomy and a founding member of the MCCC. "Anna brings experience in working with producers on a variety of challenges in Midwestern row crop and animal agriculture, and we look forward to working with her to move cover crop adoption and the MCCC into the future."

Kladivko said the council has continued to grow since its beginning in 2006, as has the interest and use of cover crops across the Midwest.

"We needed a full-time program manager to help improve our current outreach tools and develop new ones, provide timely information on cover crops to our website, be a point of contact for the council, and generally improve our capacity to be the go-to source of information about cover crops in the Midwest," she said.

Morrow grew up on a small Indiana farm of livestock and crops in Shelby County near Saint Paul, and she still helps on it. She earned a B.S. in biochemistry and an M.S. in agronomy at Purdue, through which she researched soil and pasture management on a Costa Rican dairy farm. She had been Franklin County's agriculture and natural resources educator for Purdue Extension since 2012.

The MCCC is a regional group committed to facilitating widespread adoption of cover crops across the Midwest for purposes of soil health, water quality and crop productivity. It creates Extension products such as a pocket field guide and an online Selector Tool and presents educational meetings about cover crops across the region consisting of 12 states and Ontario, Canada.

More information about the MCCC is available on its website at www.mccc.msu.edu.

Writer: Keith Robinson, 765-494-2722, robins89@purdue.edu

Sources: Eileen Kladivko, 765-494-6372, kladivko@purdue.edu

Anna Morrow, 317-392-6460, annamorrow@purdue.edu

Agricultural Communications: (765) 494-2722;
Keith Robinson, robins89@purdue.edu
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