[Tilted Irish Kilt]

I went to the post at : http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3237364/posts
I agree with IronJack (native Iowan) :Prairie grass. Sweet clover. Brougham grass.
Also, the suggestion to contact Cooperative Extension for their local successful suggestions is right on !
The second last suggestion is to install tile drains (which is labor intensive and expensive, but it works). It depends on how fast the land falls away (degree of drop/landfall).

My suggestion is a comnbination of almost all of the above (except for tile drain).
A series of terraces, interrupted by alternating rhizomacious ground cover, either flowering, or not flowering(or rhizomacious herbs) to hold the soil back.
When in doubt, use local successful plantings, especially rhizomes as you can cheaply duplicate/clone by root cuttings (spring) and tip roots (summer).
Terracing will slow down the topsoil creep, and rhizomes will hold back the soil, and facilitate plant duplication.
I like the idea of clover and dandelions for bees, pollination, and sequential fowering of dandelions, as well as dandelions roots bringing up micronutirents as deep as 15 feet.
Also, Clover seed and dandelion seed is generally cheap !

[greeneyes]

The county extension services are always great sources of info. I even like to look at the ones from other states too.

I really like winter rye, winter wheat, clover and vetch for my winter cover crop here in Missouri. We live on a rather steep hill, and next to the house, we put in terraced area for plants and use old railroad ties with some concrete squares on the outer edge, so that we had a handy staircase to walk up and down the hill - easy access to basement kitchen that way.