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How does the Great Lakes Cover Crops Project work?
How does the Great Lakes Cover Crops Project work?
Cover crops can increase agricultural sustainability and resilience, but many cover crop benefits depend on successful growth, or biomass, which can be highly variable depending on environmental and management conditions. The overall goal of this project is to partner with farmers across the Great Lakes region to understand how cover crops are performing on their fields, and identify opportunities for adapting management based on site-specific conditions to maximize environmental and economic benefits.
The importance of cover crop biomass
The importance of cover crop biomass
Cover crop biomass is a key indicator of overall performance. Previous research has shown that benefits like nutrient recycling, nitrogen supply, weed suppression, and potential for building soil health all increase as biomass increases*. Given its importance, this project focuses on measuring cover crop biomass across farm fields as an key performance indicator. However, measuring cover crop biomass can be time and labor intensive, especially when done across lots of fields at a regional scale. This is where our community science approach comes into play!
*Finney et al. 2016; Blesh 2018; MacLaren et al. 2019; McClelland et al. 2021
Using community science to understand cover crop performance
Using community science to understand cover crop performance
Community science refers to public participation in the research process. In this project, farmers participate as community scientists by collecting cover crop biomass measurements in their fields. Measuring biomass has traditionally involved clipping plants in a pre-defined area, drying them, and weighing them, which requires substantial time and equipment. To simplify this process, our team developed a new protocol (available here) that can measure cover crop biomass using only height measurements and photos. With this new protocol, farmers can easily gather and report data from their fields to help us understand trends in cover crop performance across many different locations and farming conditions.
Developing management recommendations
Developing management recommendations
In addition to reporting cover crop height measurements and photos, partnering farmers also submit a short management survey. The management survey helps our team identify what types of practices work well across different conditions, which then informs site-specific management recommendations. We also integrate environmental data, like precipitation and growing degree days, to understand the role climate plays in influencing cover crop outcomes. The more farms that participate, the better the recommendations we can develop! All participating farms also receive a personalized report each year with cover crop biomass and nutrient estimates for the fields they enroll in the project.
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