Research Results

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The Leopold Center created some of the first interdisciplinary research teams (also called issue teams) at Iowa State University. From 1989 to 1991, six issue teams were created to investigate various components of sustainable agricultural systems. A seventh issue team and two issue-based initiatives were created from 1995 to 1997.

The idea was to bring together faculty from various disciplines to focus on a problem that could be approached scientifically but was too diverse for an individual researcher or department. Team leaders were charged with organizing an effective group -- researchers from various colleges and universities, professional conservationists and farmers.

In return, the Center offered release time for leader, a long-term funding commitment for research projects, and forward-thinking interaction with the Center staff and Advisory Board. The Center also worked closely with the teams to provide them with outreach opportunities and educational support.

One measure of their success is the fact that the Agroecology Team and the Hoop Group have continued after Center support ended. The Animal Management Team has brought the concept of intensively managed grazing of beef cattle to an established practice in Iowa.

The Center continues to support Long-Term Agroecology Research efforts at ISU.

 

Alternative swine production systems

(also known as the Hoop Group)

Leaders

Team members

Leopold Center support: 1997-2002; with continued funding for specific projects

Background

As low-cost hooped hog houses become an increasingly popular alternative to large-scale intensive hog confinement, questions arise about the relative efficiency of hoops versus the bigger confinement structures for farrowing and finishing. The Center provided $150,000 for the first two years of this initiative, which were used to construct a side-by-side comparison of a confinement system and a hooped house at the ISU Rhodes Research and Demonstration Farm in Marshall County. The first five years of research have shown that hoop pigs grow faster during the summer than confinement pigs, and that on an annual basis, there were no major differences in feed intake, growth rate, feed efficiency and mortality. Annual over cost for finishing pigs was similar for the two systems.

Contact:

Initiative web page [http://www.abe.iastate.edu/hoop_structures/]

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Agroecology Issue Team

Leaders

Team members

Leopold Center support: 1991-2002

Background

The Agroecology Team assembled in 1991 to address several goals: 1) to assess the impacts of agricultural practices on the structure and function of regional agroecosystems; 2) to design and test small-scale agricultural landscape management systems that can lessen negative environmental impacts of agriculture and enhance natural ecosystem functioning; and 3) to develop a holistic approach for reconstruction and/or restoration and management of regional agroecosystems that are environmentally sound, socially acceptable, and economically feasible. The team was highly visible and had a high level external funding.

The team approaches these challenges from a landscape perspective in which the watershed is viewed as the basic functional unit of an agroecosystem. Its current focus is a five-year project that focuses on riparian (streamside) management in agricultural lands, with emphasis on ameliorating nonpoint source (NPS) water pollution and generally enhancing the environment. Work has been conducted on two watersheds; Storm Lake in Buena Vista County and Bear Creek in Story County. The team was also involved with state and federal management plans for streams.

Contact:

Team web site [http://www.buffer.forestry.iastate.edu/]

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Animal Management Issue Team

Leader

Team members

Leopold Center support: 1990-2002

Background

The Animal Management Team's goals are to develop and demonstrate profitable forage-based beef production systems that sustain or enhance environmental quality. Towards these goals, the team has evaluated 1) summer systems that utilize legume forage species and intensive rotational grazing to optimize long-term animal production per acre which reducing inputs for fertilizer and herbicides, and 2) winter systems that minimize the costs associated with the use of stored feeds by extending the grazing season with stock-piled hay crop forages, corn crop residues, and small grain cover crops. 

Specific efforts undertaken since the team's formation in 1990 include evaluation of legume forage species with emphasis on assessing soil compaction caused by grazing and summer grazing systems; evaluation of winter grazing systems and investigation of grazing of stock-piled hay crop forages at the McNay Outlying Research Farm.

Contact

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Cropping Systems Issue Team

Co-leaders

Team members

Leopold Center support: 1989-1995

Background

The Cropping Systems Team was charged with developing a cropping system that is more environmentally sustainable than current cropping approaches, but just as favorable economically. The team's work initially focused on the strip intercropping concept. Later the team sought legumes that are compatible overall with the system which led to collaboration with the Animal Management Team to study crop viability in grazing systems.

In strip intercropping, three or more crops are grown in contiguous narrow strips of four to six rows each within the same field and rotated annually. Team members studied insect and disease pest movement between strips, proper management of the systems, its impact on wildlife, and microclimate changes in the crop canopy. By studying these variables in numerous fields, the team accumulated many "field years" of data.

Contact

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Human Systems Issue Team

Leaders

Team members

Leopold Center support: 1989-1997

Background

Social, economic and policy factors that affect trends in sustainable farming practices and technologies in Iowa are studied by the Human Systems Team. The team investigates socioeconomic impacts of sustainable agriculture on the structure of Iowa agriculture, farm operators and their families, agribusinesses, farm communities, social institutions, and rural culture.

Among the study topics completed by the issue team since 1989 are Iowa farmers' adoption of reduced-input farming practices, socioeconomic factors affecting sustainability in livestock production, diffusion and impacts of the late spring soil nitrate test kit (N-Trak), information providers' views of sustainable agriculture, impacts of sustainable agriculture on rural community viability, and value orientations: transition and conflict in American agriculture. Ongoing studies include social groups, values, and agriculture; sustainable agriculture: households and change; sustainability of Iowa farmers on the land; community perceptions of water quality impacts from large-scale hog confinements; and networking among independent swine producers--opportunities and barriers for the viability of Iowa farms.

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Integrated Pest Management Team

Leader

Team members

Leopold Center support: 1990-1995

Background

Shortly after the last major alfalfa outbreak in Iowa, the Integrated Pest Management Team was formed. The long-term objectives of the team at its 1989 inception were to 1) integrate biological, cultural, and chemcal controls, as well as interactions of diverse pest complexes (insects, pathogens, and weeds) into IPM decision models, and 2) deliver environmentally and economically sound IPM systems for sustainable agricultural systems in Iowa. Alfala was selected as the crop system for study becuase of Iowa producers' increasing interest in the economic value of forages as well as the increased awareness of the benefits of alfalfa rotations. Two key alfalfa pests targeted by the team were the alfalfa weevil and the potato leafhopper.

Projects conducted by the team covered these topics: insect pest population dynamics, phnology, and biological control agents in Northeast Iowa alfalfa; population dynamics, phenology, and sampling of the potato leafhopper; epidemiology and management of alfalfa diseases; biological conteol of the alfalfa weevil and interaction with alfalfa disease management; and impact of selecting for low-lignin concentration on the ability of alfalfa to withstand low temperatures and biotic stresses under field conditions.

Contact

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Manure Management Team

Leader

Team members

Leopold Center support: 1990-1995

Background

Several issues related to Iowa's rapidly accelerating increase in animal production (particularly swine units) are being considered by the Manure Management Team. Among them are economic pressures that have caused animal production operations to become larger, more concentrated, and more expensive.

Objectives set by the team were to

1)      encourage sustainable animal production in Iowa;

2)      improve profitability of integrated crop and livestock production systems;

3)      minimize external resource use, and

4)      protect the environment.

Four major research thrusts include a sustainable systems study of the environmental impacts on surface and groundwater when large amounts of liquid swine manure are applied. A large-plot study of manure monitors the soil and groundwater effects of manure applied to large plots prior to corn. Another research project tests yield and environmental results when manure is applied prior to soybeans rather than before corn. A related study of the economics of livestock agriculture gauges the effects on the sustainability of family farms.

Contact

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Long-Term Agroecologic Research

(organic agriculture)

Leader

Team members

Leopold Center support: 1998-2002

Background

In 1997, the Leopold Center funded the first Organic Ag. Focus Groups in Iowa. Sixty producers and ag. professionals in six Iowa towns were met with to discuss research and Extension needs in Organic Agriculture. Yearly meetings with an Advisory Committee, consisting of producers, Extension staff, researchers, and agribusiness professionals, are held to update clientele and discuss future directions for our research and Extension program. The Center has continued to fund competitive grants for research, the annual organic agriculture conference and several long-term research projects.

Contact

Team web site [http://extension.agron.iastate.edu/organicag/]

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Weed Management Team

Leader

Robert G. Hartzler, Agronomy, Iowa State University

Team members

Leopold Center support: 1995-2000

Background

The team was formed in 1995 with two initial primary initiatives. The first was to conduct a farmer attitude survey. Information gleaned from the survey will improve understanding of the factors driving management decisions, so that relevant issues will be studied and information outreach efforts by the team will be better focused.

The other team task was to develop weed growth indices for use by growers, consultants, and agribusiness. Weather-based emergence indices will be created for the economically important annual weed species affecting corn and soybeans. Researchers will use the large body of emergence data that currently exists and do field evaluations at various Iowa sites. The team's ultimate goal is to present user-friendly information about predicting weed emergence and growth.

Contact

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