Location: Potato, Pulse and Small Grains Quality Research
Project Number: 3060-21650-002-033-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2022
End Date: Aug 31, 2026
Objective:
1. Measure water use by peas, lentils, cowpeas, wheat, millet, and corn and determine how the addition of pulse crops into the
rotations could affect the water footprint and water use efficiency of both dryland and irrigated cropping systems;
2. Monitor the impact of pulses on soil health;
3. Evaluate the impact of peas, lentils, and cowpeas on plant N concentrations, residual soil N, nodule and rhizosphere
community composition, and plant-rhizobia interactions;
4. Complete a cradle-to-farmgate life cycle analysis of pulses;
5. Quantify the economic impact of adding pulses to cropping systems to verify whether they could be economically
sustainable; and
6. Evaluate the impacts of incorporating pulses in U.S. diets at varying levels on environmental and nutritional outcomes.
Approach:
The goal of this project is to quantify the potential of pulse crops (specifically, dry peas, lentils, and cowpeas) to improve
environmental and economic sustainability through incorporation into both dryland and irrigated wheat rotations in semi-arid
and arid climates. The project will utilize crop rotations of three-years, with each crop represented in each year in two different
parts of Colorado (semi-arid, dryland rotations in eastern Colorado and arid, irrigated rotations in western Colorado). Several
sustainability parameters (water, carbon, nitrogen, and economics) will be measured and applied to a thorough life cycle
analysis and a dietary impact analysis. The three rotations in the dryland cropping system will be wheat-corn-fallow (WCF),
wheat-corn-millet (WCM) and wheat-corn-cowpea (WCP). We will determine the moisture utilization of each crop and each
cropping system by monitoring precipitation and using the neutron attenuation method. We will also measure yield and grain
protein levels and calculate water use efficiency for each system. For research in western Colorado, we will utilize two drip
irrigated cropping systems and introduce lentils and peas as a winter fallow replacement. The two winter crop rotations will be
wheat-pea-lentil (WPL) and wheat-fallow-corn (WFC). Soil health indicators will be evaluated every year immediately after
harvest in the surface 0-15 cm. We will include a suite of soil health parameters that reflect key soil functions including bulk soil
density, wet aggregate stability, and nitrogen (N) in particulate organic
matter and mineral-associated pools. In the field studies, we will measure plant N concentration (at harvest for each crop) and
residual soil N following harvest to 60 cm deep. To develop new knowledge on peas, lentils, and cowpeas related to
understanding the nodule and rhizosphere microbial community composition, a greenhouse study will be conducted using two
distinct soils collected from field sites where pulse crops have been previously grown.