1991 Annual Report for LS91-043
Cover Crops for Clean Water: A National Conference on the Role of Cover Crops in Improving Water Quality
Summary
Cover crops, which are used in many agricultural production systems to protect soil and conserve water between cropping cycles, have many implications for water quality management, including reduced water run-off, reduced soil erosion, reduced agrichemicals lost in runoff, and reduced nitrate available for leaching to groundwater. These implications and how cover crops can be used effectively to achieve water quality management goals were discussed at a conference April 9-11, 1991, in Jackson, Tennessee. The conference was sponsored in part by the Soil and Water Conservation Society in cooperation with a number of agricultural and conservation agencies and organizations.
The program consisted of two-and-one-half-days of presentations. An invited speaker introduced each segment of the program with a state-of-the-art presentation. Oral presentations of volunteered papers followed each of these overview presentations. Additional volunteered presentations were made via 36 poster papers.
Objective
The objective was to collect and disseminate new and old information on cover crops and their role in water quality.
Narrative
Ten subject areas were addressed during the course of the conference:
Expectations of Cover Crops in Sustainable Agriculture
Effect of Cover Crops on Water Runoff and Soil Erosion
Development and Evaluation of Cover Crop Germplasm
Role of Cover Crops:
In Surface Water Quality
In Groundwater Quality
In Maintaining Soil Productivity
In Nutrient Cycling
In Weed Management
In Integrated Crop Production Systems
In Integrated Animal Production Systems
Invited speakers prepared "white papers" on each topic. In addition, the volunteer presenters were asked to provide extended summaries of their presentations. The proceedings of the conference, including the white papers and the extended summaries, has been published and was made available to conference participants at the outset of the conference. A conference proceedings was published by the Soil and Water Conservation Society, 7515 N.E. Ankeny Road, Ankeny, Iowa 50021-9764.
A half-day field tour was also conducted to see cover crop research at the Milan Experiment Station. This is a well-known station that hosts an annual no-till field day with 4,000+ attendees.