Location: Wheat, Sorghum and Forage Research
Project Number: 3042-21000-034-002-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Mar 1, 2016
End Date: Dec 31, 2021
Objective:
Overall objectives: Objective 1. Ecosystem services from Integrated Crop Livestock (ICL) Systems. Determine environmental and sustainability benefits of ICL systems at multi-state scale utilizing existing and new field sites. Objective 2. Livestock performance in ICL Systems. Evaluate the relationships between livestock and forage characteristics in ICL systems leading to design of integrated systems that optimize livestock production while considering environmental impacts. Objective 3. Adoption of ICL Systems. Characterize the social and economic environment for implementing an integrated crop-livestock (ICL) system based on robust focus group and survey research across multiple stakeholder typologies. Objective 4. Economics involved in ICL Systems. Scale-up ICL systems for improving crop production, and potential impacts on greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes, water quantity and quality, and LCA using state-of-the-art models from field to larger scales. Objective 5. Education and Outreach. Share knowledge and provide outreach on environmental sustainability of integrated systems to landowners/producers, high school teachers and students, graduate students, NGOs, government representatives, and other stakeholders.
The ARS Lincoln investigators will be specifically involved with Objectives 1, 2, 4, and 5.
Approach:
The research will use an existing integrated crop livestock bioenergy research site. Biomass, crop production, and livestock grazing response will be quantified. Soil samples will be collected to determine SOC in Year 1 and in one subsequent year. Soil samples will be collected from all components of the system from 0-5, 5-10, 10-15, and 15-30 cm depths to measure the basic soil properties. Plant residues remaining after growing crops (corn, soybean, cover crops, and perennial grasses), and livestock grazing will be quantified. Soil organic matter fractionation will be performed by determining particulate organic matter and mineral associated organic matter. Trace gas fluxes will be measured from ICL systems using static chambers to measure fluxes of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide from the soil surface to the atmosphere.
