Ames, Iowa, USA
July 14, 2023
In the face of climate change, cover crops are becoming a popular way to protect the soil from water and wind erosion. They form a canopy that shields the soil surface from extreme temperatures and heavy, pounding rains. Cover crops also keep water on the farm by allowing water enough time to soak into the soil, preventing run off.
A team of Iowa State University scientists are studying how to use cover crops effectively. It includes Dr. Susana Goggi, professor of Agronomy and resident seed physiologist at the Seed Science Center.
“I am part of a team of 18 scientists led by D. Raj Raman, Morrill Professor of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, that received a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture,” Goggi said. “We are now on the second year of a study that examines the potential environmental benefits afforded by perennial grasses.”
Perennial grasses grow every year between rows of cash crops without having to be planted or harvested. Together with Dr. Ken Moore of the Department of Agronomy, she supervises three students on the project.
“These students are conducting different projects that hopefully will explain the best management practices in cropping systems that involves the use of cover crops,” Goggi said.
Amina Moro, one of Goggi’s graduate students, is studying the effect of planting distance between the corn plant and the ground cover on plant growth and yield. Another graduate student, Rickiel Franklin, is studying corn plant shade-avoidance mechanisms as they grow with a perennial ground cover and how to circumvent this problem. Jack Moran, who will start graduate work in the fall, will study seed treatments that promote better ground cover seed emergence and seedling establishment.
Dr. Chad Kimmelshue, now a seed treatment scientist with Pivot Bio, a private company that researches how to replace synthetic nitrogen, also studied perennial ground cover grasses when he was Goggi’s PhD student.
“My dissertation was on corn emergence in a perennial ground cover and a bare soil cropping system,” Kimmelshue said. “We investigated how planting depth and seed size within a bag of seed has an effect on emergence, and how variability in emergence affects single plant yield.”
Kimmelshue also worked with Goggi on his master’s thesis. “Dr. Goggi's mentorship allowed me to grow as a researcher,” Kimmelshue said. “With her guidance, I headed to industry extremely prepared and ready for any type of seed physiology problem.”
As part of the grant, Goggi co-leads the crop ecology and management effort, which aims to determine the best management practices for growing corn with perennial groundcover. “Our goal is to determine the optimum seed characteristics and placement needed to establish corn in perennial groundcover. We want answers to questions such as: What seed corn characteristics are best to successfully emerge and produce a plant? What is the minimum distance between the corn plant and the perennial ground cover to obtain excellent yield? How do neighboring plants influence corn development and yield?” Goggi explained. “We also want to determine the best practices for successful emergence of the ground cover.”
The study, made possible by a grant from USDA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s (AFRI) Sustainable Agricultural Systems program, will be implemented over five years.
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