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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Morris, Minnesota » Soil Management Research » Research » Research Project #447618

Research Project: Climate-Smart Alternative Crops and Cropping Systems for the Upper Midwest

Location: Soil Management Research

Project Number: 5060-30500-001-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated

Start Date: Dec 3, 2024
End Date: Dec 2, 2029

Objective:
Our overall goal is to develop innovative agricultural management practices and novel cropping systems that integrate new and alternative crops with traditional crops that more efficiently utilize agricultural inputs such as fertilizer and water, while providing agroecosystem services (e.g., increase pollinator forage and habitat, reduce soil erosion, suppress herbicide resistant weeds, and improve water quality), increased agricultural resilience to climate change, and new economic opportunities for rural America. Over the next five years our research will focus on the following objectives: Objective 1: Evaluate promising annual and perennial crops and develop profitable double and relay crop systems for the Upper Midwest that extend pollinator forage and provide economic and ecological benefits. • Subobjective 1A. Evaluate alternative crop rotations and tillage management ahead of winter camelina seeding to improve establishment, yield, and weed control. • Subobjective 1B. Determine suitability of perennial oilseed flax for production in the Upper Midwest. Objective 2: Develop agronomic best management practices for novel oilseed and perennial crops that include tools and approaches to reduce weed interference and grain loss during harvest. • Subobjective 2A. Develop best management practices to maximize pennycress establishment and yield. • Subobjective 2B. Identify herbicides that will not interfere with pennycress and camelina establishment and productivity. • Subobjective 2C. Develop management approaches for perennial flax to improve direct mechanical harvest and reduce grain loss. Objective 3: Compare nutrient balance, yield stability, and soil greenhouse gas fluxes of diverse rotations that include winter oilseed species and standard corn-soybean rotations. • Goal 3. Improve nitrogen balance, reduce GHG emissions, and maintain productive yields using diversified crop rotation with winter camelina compared to conventional corn-soybean rotations. Objective 4: Determine weediness potential of domesticated pennycress and characterize plant traits and management strategies that enhance tolerance to interspecific competition in intercropping systems. • Subobjective 4A. Determine the weediness potential of domesticated pennycress. • Subobjective 4B. Characterize plant responses and planting strategies that enhance tolerance to competition between winter camelina and soybean in relay cropping and improve yields.

Approach:
To achieve our goal of developing best management practices for new and alternative crops and integrating them into novel copping systems with traditional crops to diversify rotation in the upper Midwest Corn Belt region while providing environmental benefits, including resiliency to climate change, and adding new economic opportunities, the following approaches will be taken: 1) identify new/alternative perennial (e.g., flax) and annual crops (e.g., barley) and develop management practices (e.g., planting, tillage, and position in crop rotation) to integrate them with winter oilseeds (camelina and pennycress) to form new cropping systems and improve productivity; 2) develop new and innovative weed management strategies to control weeds, especially herbicide resistant ones, in winter camelina and pennycress production, and design better harvest methods for perennial crops (e.g., perennial flax); 3) provide new knowledge and understanding of how integrating winter camelina into cropping systems impacts soil greenhouse gas emissions and soil nitrogen balance and how it can improve overall agricultural system productivity; and 4) identify the weediness potential of domesticated golden pennycress and develop better management practices to improve overall productivity of relay cropping winter oilseeds with soybean. Together, the outcomes of this research will enhance agricultural land-use efficiency and benefit U.S. farmers, rural communities, human health, chemical and food industries, as well as government and academia scientists.