Alva Review-Courier -

BOWLING GREEN, Va. (AP) — Sometimes, Stuart Lane's fields are like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates.

The Caroline County farmer never knows what he's gonna get when he experiments with cover crops. Those are grasses, clovers or even vegetables that he plants in fields after harvesting the crops that pay the bills — corn and soybeans, barley, rye or wheat.

Cover crops aren't grown for what they might produce, because Lane doesn't harvest them. He plants them for the benefits they provide, from making the soil healthier to keeping it from washing away in a heavy rain.

Some crops actually pull ni...