Winter wheat/red clover rotation shows several benefits

Back to News Release Archive

AMES, Iowa – Fields of winter wheat underseeded with red clover are not a familiar sight in Iowa, but it could become a favored rotation if energy costs continue to rise. Jeremy Singer, a research agronomist with the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA, is looking to find viable crop rotations for the state of Iowa.

“Using winter cereal grains and forage legumes in the rotation could become a more attractive crop system because it has lower inputs,” said Singer, who works at the National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment in Ames. “The rotation does not require pesticides and uses considerably less nitrogen than corn. It could actually reduce costs for a rotation of corn following wheat by reducing the need for nitrogen.”

Singer’s work has been funded by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at ISU since 2006. An early objective of the project was to find out which kinds of wheat and triticale cereal grains would be best for under-seeding with nitrogen-fixing forage legumes such as of alfalfa and red clover, so that the cereal grain canopy did not prevent establishment of the legumes. Results from this work indicated that the cereal variety did not have a large influence on legume establishment, unless the cereal produced a very high leaf area.

The wheat serves several purposes, both as a cash grain and a cover crop to help control soil erosion. The legumes are cover crops, are green fertilizers that replace nitrogen in the soil needed for growing corn, and make better use of sunlight by creating more vegetation for cattle forage than corn or soybeans on the same piece of ground.

Singer’s work is featured in a new on-line video, On the Ground with the Leopold Center. Watch the video here.

For more information about cover crops, or Singer’s work related to this project, see Iowa State University Extension publication, Intercropping Winter Cereal Grains and Red Clover, PM 2025 at: www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM2025.pdf

The Leopold Center was established by the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act to identify and reduce environmental and social impacts of farming and develop alternative ways to farm profitably while conserving natural resources. For more information about the Leopold Center or its programs, go to www.leopold.iastate.edu.

Back to News Release Archive

The Leopold Center was established by the 1987 Iowa Groundwater Protection Act as a research and education center at Iowa State University to develop sustainable agricultural practices that are both profitable and conserve natural resources. Iowa State does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, sex, marital status, disability, or status as a U.S. Vietnam Era Veteran. Any persons having inquiries concerning this may contact the Director of Affirmative Action, 3210 Beardshear Hall, (515) 294-7612.

This page was found at http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/07-28-2010/winter-wheatred-clover-rotation-shows-several-benefits on 01/21/2013