Location: Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory
Project Number: 8042-22000-167-111-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: May 1, 2024
End Date: Apr 30, 2028
Objective:
The overall goal of this project is to develop cropping system practices that both build soil health while reducing herbicide-resistant weeds.
Specific objectives include:
1. Calibrate low-cost sensing technology to map weeds and cover crops in a soybean production field.
2. Quantify how cover crop biomass and spatial variability corresponds with weed suppression and crop yields.
Approach:
The research will be carried out on research stations and on farms that have a history of contrasting cover crops and no cover crop strips. The team working on this project has developed a low-cost cover crop and weed mapping technology. The no cover crop and cover crop strips will both be mapped. Maps of cover crop performance will be linked to weed suppression on a species basis. Lastly, yield maps will be collected and overlayed with cover crop and weed maps. The net result will be a comprehensive understanding of the degree to which cover crops suppress weeds and impact soybean yields.
