Extension's Cover Crops Initiative

Rick Koelsch, Nebraska Extension, March 3, 2015

Is Cover Crops becoming a part of conventional agriculture? The conversations occurring at this year's Commodity Classic might suggest "Yes". The more important question may be "Will Nebraska Extension be a part of this conversation on Cover Crops?"

First, I would like to thank Gary Lesoing and Roger Elmore and the rest of our Cover Crop leadership team for organizing the March 12 professional development session on this topic.  This is an excellent opportunity to get up to speed on the Nebraska specific research and to hear from farmers and natural resource agencies on their needs in Nebraska.  Educators planning to be a part of our Crops/Water and Beef focused educator in the 2020 plan need to seriously consider this professional development.  This is step one of some excellent plans this leadership team has targeted.

Now, back to Commodity Classic.  "Using Cover Crops to Boost Performance and Resilience" was attended by many hundreds of people at this year's Commodity Classic. It was led by a panel of  Nebraska's Keith Berns and two other producers.  One of Keith's messages was to "learn the principles of cover crops and then figure out the methods that work for your farm."  Ray Gasser, SW Iowa producer emphasized the value of cover crops helping improve his operations resiliency to the high intensity rain events.  Steve ??, south central Pennsylvania crop producer emphasized that cover crops were paying for themselves by reducing nutrient leaks, a huge issue in the Chesapeake Basin.  And the Mississippi River Basin is not far behind the challenges experience with farming in the Chesapeake Basin.

"Farmers of the Soil Health Partnership" was the focus of a second farmer panel focused on the National Corn Growers Association led demonstration of cover crops.  The questions was asked how many in attendance planted cover crops this winter to which between a third to half responded positively.  When asked how many had planted cover crops for 3 years or more, very few hands were raised.  Conventional producers are beginning to seriously look at this practice.

Nebraska's Greg Whitmore spoke about his first year in the Soil Health Partnership and his 10+ years growing cover crops. This partnership is recruiting farmers to demonstrate cover crops and host educational events over a 5 year period.  SHP intends to add an additional 30 farmers in 2015 including several from Nebraska.

Should Extension be partnering with SHP to identify additional Nebraska producers and with Greg to help him implement SHP?  The project manager, Dr. Nicolas Goeser would like to visit more with Nebraska Extension on just such a collaboration.  More information can be found by clicking on Soil Health Partnership.  Who in Extension might be interested in learning more?

Is Cover Crops a part of conventional cropping systems future?  The next few years is going to be very telling.  And is Nebraska Extension prepared to participate in this conversation? I trust that March 12 will be a critical starting point for a positive response.

Regional Water Networking Opportunities

By Rick Koelsch, UNL Extension

On behalf of John Fech, Aaron Nygren, Troy Ingram, Katie Pekarek, Suat Irmak, Chuck Burr, Gary Hergert, Brian Krienke, Dan Cotton, and Chuck Hibberd

The above UNL group participated in the first North Central (NC) Water Network Conference (http://northcentralwater.org/), a gathering of faculty with extension water interests across the 12 North Central states.  The intent was to build multi-state teams that would lead to competitive regional grant proposals as well as share educational and professional development experiences regionally.

During the conference, a new “Capacity-Building Seed Funding” opportunity was announced to support these multi-state initiatives (see announcement below).  In addition, UNL Extension faculty participated in five of the work groups that emerged from the conference (addressing manure, soil health, cover crop, irrigation, and youth water literacy). A summary of these work groups’ plans is provided below with a UNL Extension contact for more information.  UNL Faculty with water interests are strongly encourage in become involve with any of these five work groups as one step towards developing a regional peer network and participate in future regional Extension water education initiatives.

Manure Work Group:  The focus of our discussion was about EPA’s concern about tracking manure movement across state lines.  In the existing regulations, when a neighbor to a animal feeding operation takes the manure and especially when it crosses state lines, there is no ability to track where the manure is going.  The idea was to gather representatives from several NC region states discuss concerns, possible solutions, and educational programming to address concerns. The group is working on a grant application to the NC region to provide funding to bring together a representative from each state next spring.  UNL Extension contact:  Gary Hergert

Soil Health Work Group:  The soil health group is preparing a proposal to plan a regional initiative for the purpose of recommending a regional definition of soil health, summarizing recommended measurements for assessing soil health, and establishing a common protocol of for measurement. The meeting is intended to bring together the different groups (farmers, extension, and scientists) to create these recommendations.  A second intention of this group is to develop a regional conservation innovation grant supportive of adoption of soil health principles. UNL Extension contact:  Brian Krienke

Irrigation Management Work Group:  Four UNL faculty met with a regional team on irrigation issues. The discussion focused on sharing UNL resources for irrigation management regionally.  The discussion also covered common interest in developing a NIFA grant proposal to improve the research base of irrigated agriculture and ensure that water and nitrogen resources are used in an optimal fashion. The group will develop a funding proposal to the North Central Water Network to cover professional development and allow the group to meet in Lincoln to further discuss the NIFA grant.  UNL Extension contact:  Aaron Nygren, Troy Ingram, Chuck Burr, and Suat Irmak

Climate Change Work Group:  The climate change group led by Faye Sleeper of the University of Minnesota is assembling a proposal to create a climate academy that will focus on building the capacity and confidence of Extension Educators and non- profit principals to a) respond to client questions regarding climatic changes and b) recommended short term best management practices in their subject matter area.  A set of basic messages and a core curriculum will be developed to address this need.  The group will explore the most effective methods for empowering professionals in this endeavor.  UNL Extension contact:  John C. Fech

Youth Water Literacy work group:  No information available at this time.  UNL Contact: Katie Pekarek

Seed Grant Funding:  The North Central Region Water Network announced its 2015 seed funding request for applications (http://northcentralwater.org/rfa/). A maximum of $100,000 will be awarded, with each award being up to $30,000. Priority water-related topics include 1) Nutrient and manure management; 2) Sustainable water supply; 3) Climate change & adaptation; 4) Soil health; 5) Land use and development practices; 6) Aquatic invasive species prevention and management; 7) Youth water literacy and stewardship

Application teams should engage Extension professionals and partners from at least three North Central Region states. 

Awards will be made for work in any of the following areas: 1) Planning Projects, 2) Program Delivery Projects, and 3) Professional Development for Extension Professionals to Improve Water-Related Extension Programs.  More information can be found here: http://northcentralwater.org/rfa/

DEADLINE: The submission deadline is November 30, 2014 at 5:00 PM CDT

Extension's Role in Cover Crops

by Rick Koelsch, April 9, 2014

The role of cover crops in our Nebraska cropping systems and its contribution to the sustainability of our soil resources has been a conversation I have encountered in many places this winter.  Here are a few things I have learned and a few questions I have about Extension's future role.

What I have learned:

1. This is a topic that is equally of interest to main stream agriculture.  The Corn and Soybean Boards are willing to make some significant investments in this issue. Growers that I talked with at the Corn Grower's Association Board as well as at several Extension meetings this winter suggest that there is a plenty of questions from our most sophisticated farmers and very few answers coming from the University.
2. There are a small group of "early adopters" that know quite a lot about cover crops. These lessons have been learned from the school of "hard knocks". They may not be "replicated" experiences, but experiences we should not discount.
3. There is a "teachable moment" opportunity for the agricultural community on cover crops and soil health.
4. Our research and extension expertise in cropping systems has some catching up to do if we intend to be a part of this conversation.

 Gary Lesoing introduced me to two Nebraska producers who are experienced cover crop growers, Mike McDonald and Scott Gonnerman. I did not find them to be evangelists for the cover crops movement.  I did find them to be  knowledgeable and experienced individuals who are seeing benefits and have a sincere desire to learn more, possibly in partnership with UNL.  Here is what I heard from them about possible collaboration with UNL Extension:

1. There is a need for a cohort of farmers wanting to learn more about cover crops to have better opportunities to interact and share experiences.  Would UNL Extension want to be a part of this conversation and be willing to facilitate a gathering of this cohort with opportunities for sharing experiences and questions?
2. There is value in providing experienced cover crop growers the opportunity to share the lessons learned from their experience. Would UNL Extension partner with these  individuals to help share some of the lessons these individuals have learned.  With a lack of research based information for Nebraska (my observation), these experienced producers could be valuable partners as the the research is getting started.
3. Should our researchers be listening to these experience cover crop growers?  These field experiences might be a valuable guide to the research questions and answers that would be most beneficial to Nebraska.

I believe that the topic of Soil Health and the role of Cover Crops is an issue in which Extension needs to make an investment.  Who are the faculty that want to guide this investment?  What are the steps we can take to deliver solid information to our producers?  How can we collaborate with the more experienced cover crops growers?  How do we help the research community define the most critical questions for Nebraska to which we need answers?  I would like to know who would like to be a part of this conversation and some ideas on those first steps that might be most valuable.