Chris Reberg-Horton

Project is in support of PSI: The overarching goal of this project is to accelerate development of a scientifically-based and economically-sound cover crop seed industry. We expect this systems-oriented project will make improved cover crop varieties available to 250,000 American farmers who use cover crops to protect and improve soil on 50 million acres by 2030. Work from this project will contribute significantly to substantial growth in the U.S. cover crop seed industry, more than doubling in size to become a billion-dollar a year industry by the end of the decade. Objective 1. Accelerate cover crop germplasm improvements and seed yield potential to advance the U.S. cover crop seed industry. (S, M, L) Objective 2. Evaluate traits contributing to improved performance of cover crop cultivars (S, M) Objective 3. Establish a National Cover Crop Variety Trial Program to determine optimal regional adaptation of improved cultivars. (S, M)

NRCS has an interagency collaboration with ARS to develop national decision support tools with the regional cover crop councils. The SCCC will initiate an collaborative agreement with NRCS to receive funds for train-the-trainer activities regarding these tools. Furthermore, new funds will be used to enhance regional outreach and extension activities in the SCCC as well as expand content and functionality of the SCCC website. Collectively, this work will train agricultural professionals and provide technical assistance to growers on cover crop management.

The herbicide-resistant weeds epidemic is limiting U.S. chemical weed control options and increasing crop yield losses. U.S. Field crop producers need new precision technologies and nonchemical control practices to provide long-term herbicide resistant weed management. The overall goal of this project is to develop and regionally adapt precision Integrated Weed management systems for corn, soybean, and cotton producers.

Row crop farmers, who represent the majority of agricultural acreage in the US, have largely implemented only one of the four soil health management principles in the form of conservation tillage, which minimizes soil disturbance. While this change was of great benefit to soil conservation, the move to conservation tillage took a long time. Given the challenges facing modern agriculture, we do not have the luxury of such a timeline for the broad adoption of the other three principles (i.e. maximize soil cover, biodiversity, and presence of living roots). All of these remaining principles can be implemented through broadscale adoption of cover crops. However, we have struggled to support “middle adopters” in the implementation of cover crops, or better still, the implementation of cover crops combined with conservation tillage. The combination of cover crops plus conservation tillage has been identified as one of the single best ways to improve soil health. However, the inclusion of conservation tillage and cover crops greatly increases cropping system management complexity. Stakeholders have indicated a considerable need for site-specific recommendations that assist farmers in decision-making to reduce this burden. Our goal and novel approach is to enhance and expand an on-farm research network of unprecedented geographic range and scale by uniting the Precision Sustainable Agriculture network (PSA; public sector) with the Indigo Ag. (private) network to implement field trials/demos and allow for the parameterization, calibration, and validation of decision tools. PSA tools provide farmer support on cover crop economics, N management, and water dynamics that will promote the adoption of conservation tillage and cover crops. Collaboration with Dagan, Inc. in this project will enhance the geospatial assessments of cover crops and their potential impact on soil health and greenhouse gases (GHGs). Specific objectives include 1) scale up PSA on-farm monitoring network and demonstration sites to include farms throughout the North and South Central US to address critical cover crop knowledge gaps and regionalize decision support tools; 2) conduct environmental, economic, and social evaluations of CC use to mitigate barriers to adoption; 3) improve remote sensing algorithms that estimate CC performance to provide growers, modelers, and policy makers field-level spatial assessments; 4) link remote sensing data with a process-based biogeochemical model to document and evaluate greenhouse gas and soil carbon (C) dynamics that will inform ecosystem service marketplaces; and 5) provide field days and workshops on our DSTs to NRCS field staff, extension, and private consultants. Anticipated conservation benefits of increased conservation tillage and CC adoption include improved soil health and decreased impact of agriculture on the environment (e.g., less nutrient runoff). Anticipated economic benefits include decreased input costs (due to more efficient nutrient use) and improved yield (due to the resilience soil health imparts to cropping systems).

The objectives of this cooperative agreement are to: 1. Perform experiments and analyses related to development of high-throughput methods focused on utilizing machine learning tools for integrating into breeding programs. 2. Organize research projects to expand research in this field corresponding to multiple cropping systems, including but not limited to: cotton, soybean, blueberry, peanut and turf. 3. Work on development of genomics based tools within commodity groups to set the stage for future genomic selection projects.