Tag Archives: agriculture

19Apr/23

Top 10 Impacts of Cover Crops for Soil Health

This Digital Café features Dr. Rob Myers, Director of the University of Missouri Center for Regenerative Agriculture and also Regional Director of Extension Programs for NCR-SARE, discussed several of the key ways that cover crops can improve soil health. These factors include nutrient cycling, soil organic matter, rainfall infiltration, addressing soil compaction, aggregate stability and impacts on earthworms, mycorrhizal fungi, and other aspects of soil biology. This presentation was originally broadcast on Wednesday, April 19, 2023.

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15Mar/23

Lessons learned from on-farm cover crop research in Nebraska

In this Digital Cafe, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Assistant Professor Andrea Basche and PhD graduate student Fernanda Krupek share results from five-year on-farm experiments conducted through a partnership program with Nebraska NRCS and the Nebraska On-Farm Research Network. This includes findings on how cover crops impact soil properties, nutrient cycling, weed communities and best practices for sampling at the farm scale. This presentation was originally broadcast on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.

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16Nov/22

Cover Crop Profitability

How long does it take for cover crops to become profitable?  In this presentation, Dr. Rob Myers of University of Missouri shared insights on how different management scenarios can impact the time it takes for cover crops to provide a positive economic return, based on data from the SARE/CTIC national cover crop survey.This presentation was originally broadcast on Wednesday, November 16, 2022.

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19Oct/22

Citizen Science for Great Lakes Cover Crops

Many cover crop benefits depend on successful cover crop growth, or biomass, but cover crop biomass can vary widely across farms because it is influenced by a range of environmental and management factors. This Digital Cafe featured Etienne Herrick, a Ph.D. student in the Blesh Soil and Agroecosystems Lab at the University of Michigan, who provided an overview of a citizen science project working to better understand how and why cover crop growth varies across real farms. This presentation was originally broadcast on Wednesday, October 19, 2022.

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21Sep/22

Soil Health Practices and Water Behavior and Efforts to Quantify Soil Function

Soil health is defined in terms of soil function, and some of the most important functions are related to water-holding and water infiltration. Farmers and policy-makers both care about these properties, but they can be elusive to measure. In this edition of the Soil Health Digital Café, Dr. Anna Cates, University of Minnesota Soil Health Specialist, discusses on-farm efforts to quantify changes in soil function with soil health practice adoption, including soil organic matter pools, soil aggregates, and water infiltration. This presentation was originally broadcast on Wednesday, September 21, 2022.

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18May/22

Understanding Adoption of Agricultural Conservation Practices

The April edition of the Digital Cafe series featured Linda Prokopy, Professor and Department Head in Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Purdue University. Linda is a Professor and Department Head of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Purdue University and directs the Indiana Water Resources Research Center. Linda also leads the Natural Resources Social Science Lab (NRSS) that examines how human interactions with the environment impact natural resources. In this webinar, Linda summarizes decades of research examining what motivates adoption of conservation practices in agriculture. This presentation was originally broadcast on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

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16Mar/22

Long-term Effect of Cover Crops on Soil Health and Crop Yield

As part of the Soil Health Nexus Digital Cafe Series, Dr. Inderjot Chahal with the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Guelph, presents “Long-term Effect of Cover Crops on Soil Health and Crop Yield”. This presentation was originally broadcast on Wednesday, March 16, 2022.

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20Dec/21

Soil Stability Maps to Improve Management for Soil Health and Carbon Markets

As part of the Soil Health Nexus Digital Cafe Series, Dr. Bruno Basso from the Michican State University present “Soil Stability Maps to Improve Management for Soil Health and Carbon Markets”. This presentation was originally broadcast on December 15, 2021.

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21Jul/21

Solar Corridors for Soil Health

As part of the Soil Health Nexus Digital Cafe Series, Joel Gruver of Western Illinois University presents “Solar Corridors for Soil Health”. This presentation was originally broadcast on July 21, 2021.

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21Apr/21

Ag Policy and How it Impacts Soil Health Practice Adoption

As part of the Soil Health Nexus Digital Cafe Series, Lara Bryant from the Natural Resources Defense Council, presents “Ag Policy and How it Impacts Soil Health Practice Adoption”. This presentation was originally broadcast on April 21, 2021.

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