Webinar Series Unlocks Potential of Perennial Groundcovers in Corn and Corn/Soybean Production Systems

A five-week lunch-and-learn webinar series starting in January 2025 will explore the innovative use of perennial groundcovers in corn and corn/soybean production systems as a cover crop. This series, sponsored by Iowa State University and RegenPCG, will be held on consecutive Tuesdays (Jan. 14, 21, 28 and Feb. 4 and 11, 2025) from 12-1 p.m. CST.

Register for the webinar series and stay tuned for the video series release.

This webinar series will focus on providing information on what perennial groundcover agriculture is, the potential benefits it offers, insight into how to effectively manage these systems, and work that is being undertaken to make them more robust for widespread adoption and implementation. The presentations are tailored for farmers, crop advisors, technical service providers, government agencies (NRCS/DNR) and other agricultural scientists eager to understand the possibilities and challenges of integrating perennial groundcovers into their row crop agriculture.

Jan. 14, 2025 – Perennial Ground Cover Integration into Corn and Soybean Production: System Basics and Potential Benefits; all speakers are from Iowa State University.
• Raj Raman – A visionary overview of the potential and scalability of perennial groundcovers in corn and soybean production systems
• Ken Moore and Roger Hintz – An operational guide to implementing a perennial groundcover in corn and soybean production systems
• Philip Rockson – A comparative analysis of time and labor demands across conventional, cereal rye and perennial ground cover in corn and soybean production systems
• Cyndi Bartel – Comparisons of costs for conventional, cover cropping and perennial groundcover in corn and soybean production systems
Jan. 21, 2025 – Perennial Ground Cover Suppression and Weed Management within Corn and Soybean Production Systems
• Amina Moro, Iowa State University – Crop Zone Requirements
• Sara Lira and Brent Wilson, Corteva Agriscience – Techniques for maintaining a crop growth zone in corn and soybean production systems
• Erin Haramoto, University of Kentucky – Chemical weed control options for perennial groundcover systems. Experiences and options
 Jan. 28, 2025 – Selecting Perennial Groundcovers for Corn and Soybean Production Systems and Their Ideal Characteristics
• Shuizhang Fei, Iowa State University – Choices for perennial groundcover in corn and soybean production systems
• Patrick Galland, Iowa State University – Research of unsuppressed production systems with perennial ground cover in corn production
• Brandon Schlautman, The Land Institute, and Philip Rockson, Iowa State University – Experiences from partnering farms using perennial ground cover in corn and soy production systems

Feb. 4, 2025 – Corn Hybrid Performance within Perennial Groundcover Systems
• Raj Raman, Iowa State University – Types of perennial groundcover production systems and how this influences brittleness
• Thomas Lubberstedt and Memis Bilgici, Iowa State University – Should we breed corn for use in perennial groundcover production systems?
• Sara Lira, Corteva Agriscience – Evaluating hybrid performance in well suppressed perennial groundcover systems

Feb. 11, 2025 – Quantifying and Valorizing Ecosystem Service Benefits for Perennial Groundcover in Corn and Soybean Production; all speakers are from Iowa State University
• Marshall McDaniel– Soil moisture results and water competition for nitrogen in perennial groundcover systems
• Oluwatuyi Olowoyeye – Research on grass cover and erosion control
• Philip Rockson – Findings on nitrogen leaching reduction
• Cyndi Bartel – Federal farm bill programs and valorizing ecosystem services
For more information about the series, please contact Daniel Andersen at dsa@iastate.edu or 515-294-4210. For registration inquiries, please contact Melissa McEnany at mmcenany@iastate.edu or 515-294-9075.

RegenPGC grad student honored at 2024 World Food Prize

World Food Prize Graduate Student Poster Competition awardees

RegenPGC Graduate Education Community member Prathyusha Cheguri (4th from left) earned a significant award from the World Food Prize’s “Norman Borlaug Lecture Poster Competition for Graduate and Undergraduate Students.” Prthyusha’s presentation focused on her research “on one of the ideal candidates (Poa bulbosa) to use as the ground cover of the Perennial Ground Cover based cropping systems.” Prathyusha’s achievement speaks well of her efforts as a graduate student at Iowa State University and the mentoring she has received from RegenPGC CoPd, Shuizhang Fei.

Three graduate students were honored in the Borlaug Competition on Oct. 28 as part of the 2024 World Food Prize. Entrants submitted research posters on global issues in food, climate, technology, and more.
Graduate Students Awards
1st place – Esther Y. Akoto, industrial and agricultural technology
2nd place – Brady Clausen, sustainable agriculture
3rd place – Prathyusha Cheguri, genetics and genomics

You can learn more about Prthyusha and her colleagues in our RegenPGC Graduate Education Community at https://www.regenpgc.org/theme-3-education/graduate-education-copy/

(Photo: World Food Prize)

Research? Just never stop learning.

“Withut deviation progress is not possible.” This is probably the first time a USDA-NIFA report has inspiration in a quote attributed to Frank Zappa!

The quote is interesting, but we don’t totally agree with it in the context of our latest quarterly report (May 1 – July 31, 2024). We have never stopped learning about perennial groundcover since we started this project in 2021. Each research result teaches us something new, and we reassess what we previously believed in light of new information. At the same time, we never deviate from our goal of developing and increasing the reliability of perennial ground cover systems.

We measure our progress on our ability to make continuous course corrections. With that mindset, we think we are well on our way to demonstrating that perennial groundcover can be a useful approach to providing a range of farm operations with cover crops that require low labor inputs, provide significant ecosystem benefits, increase row crop resiliency, and have similar economic profiles as conventional row crop practices.

What a team! ISU’s RegenPGC Team Honored

WHAT A TEAM! The RegenPGC Team has won the 2024 Iowa State University Award for Interdisciplinary Team Research.

This award “recognizes an interdisciplinary team of two or more faculty researchers with outstanding achievements who have made a significant contribution to the university’s research and scholarship mission through successful interdisciplinary collaborations.”

This is a team award, but it reflects a group effort. We want to recognize everyone involved in the project, including our Stakeholder Advisory Board, our co-project directors, collaborators at Corteva Agrisciences, Iowa State University, Kansas State University, The Land Institute, University of Kentucky, University of Missouri-Columbia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the 21 members of our Graduate Student Community. And, of course, we can’t forget the agency that made all this possible, our funder, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

A teacher ‘takes one’ for the kids

Some teachers are willing to go all the way for their students. That’s what James Wenman of the Holy Trinity Catholic School in Des Moines, Iowa, did when he spent a good part of the summer at Iowa State University.

Here is what James had to say at the end of his RET project: “This program has allowed me to see into the world of science through the eyes of a researcher. Research is a dynamic field, evolving constantly. It involves encountering errors, repeating activities, and undergoing continuous learning processes.”

James came into our Research Experience for Teachers program to expand his knowledge in different scientific areas to “bring cool things back to my classroom.” We think he nailed it with his project, “Adapting growing practices of North American maize production to improve environmental affects.” You can learn more about James’ research project, “at https://lnkd.in/gshd7KGK

Inspiring a Math Teacher

Amy Jurasek is a math teacher at Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines, Iowa, who participated in our 2024 Research Experience for Teachers program.

As a teacher, Amy is inspired to develop lessons integrating environmental themes into mathematical problem-solving activities. She wants her students to understand the relevance of algebra and geometry to solving real-world problems.

Here is what she had to say at the end of the summer: “As teachers, we are used to being well prepared before class starts. In the field, it is impossible to have an exact plan as the weather changes, research is modified, and people are not always predictable. Our leader was phenomenal in keeping the projects going, touching base with people multiple times throughout the day, and adapting on the fly to the various situations that arose.

There are times in the classroom when I need to better adapt to what is going on with students and realize the importance of small pick-me-ups when engagement is waning. In the field, being given a doable task quickly put me at ease. These are all things that I already know would provide a better classroom environment, but the work in the field really reinforced the concepts.”

You can learn more about Amy’s project at https://www.regenpgc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Amy-Jurasek-poster-2024.pdf.

Flip the Script – When the Teacher Went to School

Meggan Lint is a teacher who spent much of her summer in our Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program. Meggan has a goal of continuous learning so she can “embolden my students to achieve their goals outside of the classroom.”

We like to believe that being immersed in her project, “Comparative Analysis of Growth and Development in Maize under Shade (Low Red Far Red Ratio) Light and White Light Conditions Under Perennial Ground Cover Crop (PGC),” did just that with the help of her mentors and RET advisors Thomas Lübberstedt, Leticia Prada De Miranda, Diego Caixeta, and Memis Bilgici.

Here is what Meggan had to say at the end of the summer: “This experience is unlike any other experience I’ve ever been a part of, and it was amazing!! If you had told me, in the beginning, that this summer would feel more like summer camp when I was eight years old, I wouldn’t have believed you. I felt the same feelings—anxiety, excitement, and not knowing if I would fit in—about this summer course as I had when I first went to a week of sleepaway camp. And much like being at sleepaway camp, we learned from each other, played, and explored.”

You can learn more about Meggan and her RET colleagues at https://www.regenpgc.org/theme-3-education/graduate-education/.

Graduate students are our Research Project’s Superpower

Marvel and D.C. Comics have a lot of superpower characters; we have our Graduate Education Community! Granted, our 19 grad students don’t wear flashy tights, but they represent the future of ag sciences, and we think they have some serious superpowers driving our perennial groundcover research forward at a fast clip.

Meet Sagar Dahal, the newest member of our Graduate Education Community. Sagar is a PhD student in Agricultural Economics with academic interests in price analysis, futures and options, risk management, and commodity markets. Sagar will be working with RegenPGC CoProject Director Dr. Amani Elobeid.

Sagar holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from the Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal, and an MS in Agricultural Economics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His master’s thesis, “Exploring the Presence of Nonlinear Deterministic Dynamics in Commodity Prices,” reflects his deep interest in understanding complex market behaviors.

During his Masters’ studies, Sagar worked as a Graduate Research Assistant, where he gained experience in academic writing, data management, and analysis. He also gained teaching experience as a Teaching Assistant for Applied Econometrics and Introduction to Microeconomics.

Sagar enjoys listening to music, watching movies, hiking, and camping in his free time. Learn more about Sagar and his colleagues at https://www.regenpgc.org/theme-3-education/graduate-education/.

Undergrad Research Experiences, Influencing Two Generations

RegenPGC

Education is a large part of our RegenPGC project. With our summer Research Experience for Undergraduates program, we get to influence two generations of learners! Mikayla Sampson-Pagan (University of South Florida) is looking forward to a career as an elementary school education teacher. Thanks to the guidance of her summer mentors and teachers (RegenPGC Team Members Shuizhang Fei, Rickiel R. Franklin da Silva, Patrick Galland, Maureen Griffin, Kenneth J.Moore, and Susana Goggi), Mikayla’s summer adventure will shape her teaching philosophies for years to come.

What was the biggest takeaway from your research experience with RegenPGC?
“Always remember to promote belonging. This includes remembering that it is okay to make mistakes. This program has taught me the scientific side of research. Research is constantly changing day to day. There are errors, repeating activities, and constant learning.”

Learn more about Mikayla’s  research at https://lnkd.in/gnXd4xK3

New research released on the economics of perennial groundcover

There is an adage that says if you want to find something, follow the money. Our researchers, Cynthia Bartel, Keri Jacobs, Ken Moore, and Raj Raman, did just that with their latest journal publication.

Their paper, Anticipatory technoeconomic evaluation of Kentucky Bluegrass-based perennial groundcover implementations in large-scale Midwestern US corn production systems, utilizes an enterprise budget framework to examine and compare expected costs and revenues associated with establishing and maintaining perennial groundcover in row crop systems with standard continuous corn (SCC) (Zea mays L.) production. The good news is that the article is an open-access publication and written in an accessible style.

Bartel, Cynthia A., Jacobs, Keri L., Moore, Kenneth J., & Raman, D.Raj. (2024). Anticipatory technoeconomic evaluation of Kentucky Bluegrass-based perennial groundcover implementations in large-scale Midwestern US corn production systems. Sustainability, 2024, 16(16), 7112. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16167112. Open access.