Location: Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory
Project Number: 8042-21660-005-040-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Apr 1, 2016
End Date: Aug 17, 2020
Objective:
1. Improve cover crop legume performance through germplasm screening and breeding.
a. Create a legume cover crop germplasm screening program that evaluates hairy vetch, crimson clover, red clover, and Austrian winter pea for select agronomic traits of interest across a latitudinal gradient;
b. Build a network of farmers who will aid in variety selection through participatory germplasm screening;
c. Identify select cover crop accessions for seed increases and future improvement;
d. Contract buying groups or germplasm curators to conduct cover crop seed growouts.
2. Disseminate knowledge gained from on-farm and on-station cover crop germplasm screenings and management experiments and engage farmers and agricultural professionals through on-farm field days, regional workshops, webinars, and the eOrganic website.
3. Establish the Eastern Cover Crop Council (ECC).
Approach:
Project will involve screening and selecing legume cover crops at sites across the U.S. We will partner with the NRCS Plant Material Centers to provide regionally adapted varieties.