Evaluating Legume Cover Crops for Sustainable Corn Grain Production in the Virginia Coastal Plain

Project Overview

OS18-111
Project Type: On-Farm Research
Funds awarded in 2018: $9,747.00
Projected End Date: 06/05/2018
Grant Recipient: Northern Neck Soil and Water Conservation District
Region: Southern
State: Virginia
Principal Investigator:
Keith Balderson
Email
Northern Neck Soil and Water Conservation District

NOTE: PI LEFT ORGANIZATION AND PROPOSAL OBJECTIVES CANNOT BE FULFILLED. PROJECT CANCELLED 6/5/2018.

Commodities

Not commodity specific

Practices

No practices identified

Proposal abstract:

To make corn grain production in the Southeastern U.S. more sustainable, producers need to become more efficient by increasing yields and/or decreasing input costs. The use of legume cover crops offers the potential for more sustainable corn grain production by reducing and/or eliminating nitrogen fertilizer, improving soil health, and increasing corn yields.

There is a lot of interest in the value of cover crops to suppress weeds. During the project, we will make a visual assessment of all treatments to determine if the cover crop species are suppressing weed seed germination.

Project objectives from proposal:

To evaluate the effectiveness of the cover crops in suppressing weeds, we will make a visual evaluation of the weeds present in each treatment four weeks after planting and/or prior to any post-emergence herbicide application utilized by the cooperating farmer. The number of weeds and species of each will be determined in a random four foot square block in each treatment.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.