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Winter-hardy cover crops, perennial grasses, and legumes are options for diversification of summer-annual cropping systems by providing year-round ground cover. Cover crops provide soil coverage during seasons when a summer annual crop—such as corn and soybean—is not actively growing. Cover crops are useful management tools for enhancing the sustainability of agroecosystems and reducing negative environmental impacts in a summer-annual system, lengthening the “green phase” of the system by growing in the months between harvesting and planting.