Our latest quarterly progress report (Nov. 1, 2022 – Jan. 31, 2023) is available for download. Catch up on our Team’s latest activities. Questions? Contact Anne Kinzel (akinzel@iastate.edu). Don’t forget to check out our latest news on our new RegenPCG LinkedIn page. Our research team has been incredibly busy preparing for the summer 2023 field trial season. Stay tuned for our new field trial webpage coming out in late April. We anticipate hosting multiple field day events in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Ohio, where we will share the latest developments on perennial grass establishment and suppression. We learn more about perennial grass cover management daily and look forward to sharing our new knowledge with multiple ag constituents.
USDA NIFA Coordinated Agricultural Project grants require a large investment in education and outreach. Sure, we do a lot of good science, but we spend a third of our grant dollars on education and outreach as required by our federal contract. You can learn about our work in these areas in our Education and our Outreach Themes, but today we want to announce the launch of our new Graduate Student Community page. Here you can learn about our nine current graduate students (and yes, there are more to come later this spring!) who hail from all over the country and the world. When you look over their bios and their career aspirations, you will know the future of agriculture is in good hands!
The RegenPGC research team has released an updated FAQ set that answers many questions about our vision of perennial groundcover in the Midwestern agricultural landscape. This updated FAQ set replaces the ones from 2022 and reflects the ongoing work of our research team.
The 22 questions and answers are available on our website.
Austin Pearce, Agronomic Data Scientist at NGO Field to Market, has joined our Stakeholder Advisory Board (SAB). Pearce replaces Gina Nichols on the Board. The Stakeholder Advisory Board is a vital part of the RegenPGC market, and this group of talented individuals provides us with the advice and counsel we need from outside academia to move the project forward. We appreciate their willingness to give their time and expertise to our project. See who else is on our SAB here.
Watch Raj Raman, Regen PGC Project Director, introduce our perennial ground cover research project. With funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, we expect to go a long way in moving the needle on a new way of doing cover crops. This video is the first in a series of brief videos that will feature RegenPGC researchers discussing perennial ground cover planting, suppression, and other important agronomic management issues.
The RegenPGC Project (Regenerating America’s Working Landscapes to Enhance Natural Resources and Public Goods) just released its latest quarterly progress report covering the period Aug. 1, 2022 – Oct. 31, 2022. The report describes progress made by each project’s Theme and Objective teams toward the goal of developing and derisking perennial groundcover systems. The report, which is submitted to USDA-NIFA every quarter, is available for download. For further information, contact Anne Kinzel, Deputy Director, via email.
2022 was a special year for Cole Dutter, as he completed his Ph.D. thesis, “The spatial and temporal effects of prairie strip restoration on soil health.” Cole’s Major Professor was RegenPGC CoPd Marshall McDaniel. Cole continues his work on improving Midwestern ag lands through his participation in RegenPGC as a PostDoc researcher, where he will be helping the team with RegenPGC Data Management.
RegenPGC Co-Project Director Dr. Erin Haramoto (Crop Ecology & Management) is recruiting research assistants to join the Haramoto Lab at the University of Kentucky Plant and Soil Sciences Department in Lexington, KY. The position will be available in either January or May 2023.
Dr. Haramoto is looking for highly motivated MS and Ph.D. students to conduct research in our RegenPGC perennial groundcover/corn agroecosystems project. Students will be in the UK’s Integrated Plant and Soil Sciences graduate program, one of the UK’s largest grad programs. Potential research topics include groundcover suppression and weed control, shade avoidance response in corn, and community interactions with pest and beneficial organisms. Students will gain knowledge in weed science, agroecology, and statistics, and experience with general greenhouse, field research, and data collection techniques. With assistance from other team members, students will collect data from field experiments. Students will be primarily responsible for organizing, sharing, and analyzing data for their
research projects. Additionally, students will participate in virtual and in-person team meetings in Iowa, with the potential for travel to university, industry, and on-farm research locations throughout the Midwest.
Enjoy a few quiet moments over lunch while learning. Why not?
Sep. 28, 2022 12 pm RegenPGC Co-Project Director D. Raj Raman will discuss the challenges and benefits of cover cropping systems that employ perennial groundcover.
A strip of perennial ground cover between rows of corn (Ken Moore)
In the webinar, “Developing Large-Scale, Reliable Perennial Groundcover Systems – Challenges & Approaches from RegenPGC,” Raman will highlight the current state of research, practical applications of cover crops and how perennial groundcover (PGC) could become a lower barrier-to-entry approach to cover cropping which could accelerate adoption. He will also discuss technical and non-technical challenges to realizing broad utilization of PGC. In addition, Raman will provide insights into the multiple critical ecosystem services cover crops contribute to the overall health and productivity of cropland.
Prof. D. Raj Raman
“Cover crops have been a talking point in agriculture for years, but adoption rates are low, and our research is pointing to different ways to take advantage of the known conservation benefits through practices that may have stronger appeal for farmers,” said Raman. “We understand and appreciate both the promise and challenges of making PGC adoption a viable approach throughout the upper Midwest, and are eager to draw attention to the potential of perennial groundcover farming systems that could become widely deployed as a conservation practice.”
Webinar Access Instructions
To participate in the live webinar, shortly before noon CDT Sep. 28:
The webinar will also be recorded and archived on the ILF website, where it can be watched at any time. Archived webinars are available at: https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/page/webinars.
A Certified Crop Adviser board-approved continuing education unit (CEU) has been applied for. Those who participate in the live webinar are eligible. Information about how to apply to receive the credit will be provided at the end of the live webinar.
Images: Raj Raman & Perennial Groundcover (PGC) Farming in Practice
ILF Contact: Alena Whitaker, Water and Natural Resources Specialist (515.294.2473)
Iowa Learning Farms is an Iowa State University Extension and Outreach conservation and water quality education program.
At RegenPGC, we are all about education and sharing knowledge; that is why we have an entire team devoted to educating graduate and undergraduate students and school teachers.
Like many educators, we view the new academic year as the real ‘New Year,’ and the best way to start a new year is to add some promising students.
Joining us in Academic Year 2022-23 are Iowa State University (ISU) graduate students Memiş Bilgici, Prathyusha Cheguri, Brooke Dietsch, and Philip Rockson, who will work to promote our perennial ground cover goals with our Breeding & Genetics Objective led by Iowa State University Professors Thomas Lübberstedt and Shui-zhang Fei.
These students will be joining our current grad students, Patrick Galland (ISU/Breeding & Genetics), James Mellich (Kansas State University/Socioeconomic Impacts & Policy), Gabby Myers (ISU/Water Quality), Oluwatuyi (“Tuyi”), and Olowoyeye (ISU/Ecosystem Services & Modeling).
USDA NIFA Coordinated Agricultural Project grants require a large investment in education and outreach. Sure, we do a lot of good science, but we spend a third of our grant dollars on education and outreach as required by our federal contract. You can learn about our work in these areas in our 
