Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Iowa Learning Farms' June Webinar: Intra-row perennial-established cover crops

Date: Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

Start: 11:30 am End: 12:15 pm

Location: Online webinar

Contact: John Lundvall, ILF field coordinator, 515-294-5429

The Iowa Learning Farms June webina will feature Ken Moore, Iowa State University (ISU) Distinguished Professor of Agronomy.

Moore will share the results of an ongoing ISU evaluation of perennial-established cover crops maintained between rows of corn. These perennial living mulches save soil moisture, slow soil erosion and sequester carbon. Preliminary results are promising. In addition to the soil benefits, higher corn grain yields are reported with the living mulch treatments. The field study has been conducted at a single Ames area location since 2008. Although the preliminary corn grain yield response has been positive, Moore is cautious. In an ISU press release from early 2012, Moore stated, “We recognize that it could be a brittle system. We’ve only tried it in one location, with one corn hybrid for four years. We don’t know how it is going to perform in the entire state with different soils and different growing conditions.”

Moore will discuss the research project and its findings to-date in the webinar presentation. He is the Charles F. Curtiss Distinguished Professor of Agriculture at ISU and has been a faculty member in agronomy since 1993. He holds a B.S. degree from Arizona State University, an M.S. and Ph.D. from Purdue University. Moore is also the director of the Master of Science in Agronomy distance education program and teaches graduate agronomy courses.

The webinar is part of a series, hosted by ILF, held on the third Wednesday of each month. The webinars are held over the noon hour through Adobe Connect. All that is needed to participate is a computer with Internet access. The topics discussed will be beneficial for technical service providers, watershed project coordinators, Extension specialists and anyone else interested in the topic of the month.

Related information

View the archived seminar [Adobe Connect website]

View other ILF webinars  www.extension.iastate.edu/ilf

About Iowa Learning Farms: ILF is a partnership between the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa State University Extension, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the US EPA (section 319); in cooperation with Conservation Districts of Iowa and the Iowa Farm Bureau.