Optimizing Planting Methods for Cover Crops Before Corn: Comparison of Precision Planting and Strip Tillage to Achieve Nutrient Loss Reduction and Maintain Yield Dec 2025

Project Update

Cover crop was planted.

Related Activities and Accomplishments 

2 presentations. 2 presentations (invited) planned for 2026: Practical Farmers of Iowa Annual Conference, Jan 10-11, 2026. Research on improved management practices for cereal rye ahead of corn. Midwest Cover Crops Conference, Feb 10-11, 2026. Pythium and Allelopathy.

1 proposal was submitted related to this project: NC-SARE preproposal. On-Farm Partnerships : Validation of Cereal Rye Cover Crop Management Practices to Reduce Seedling Disease and Mitigate Reduced Yield of Corn

  Read more about Optimizing Planting Methods for Cover Crops Before Corn: Comparison of Precision Planting and Strip Tillage to Achieve Nutrient Loss Reduction and Maintain Yield Dec 2025

Effect of winter cereal rye cultivar selection and herbicide choice on seedling disease, pathogen populations, nitrogen dynamics and growth and yield of corn Dec 2025

Project Update

Shoots of each variety of cereal rye were sampled to measure biomass produced. We found that Elbon produced the most biomass of all CR varieties. No differences in biomass occurred among the other varieties (Serafino, Aroostook, and Rymin). Read more about Effect of winter cereal rye cultivar selection and herbicide choice on seedling disease, pathogen populations, nitrogen dynamics and growth and yield of corn Dec 2025

Incentivizing Conservation: Understanding Opportunities and Barriers That Influence Iowa Farmers’ Decisions to Adopt Nutrient Management Conservation Practices Over Time Jan 2026

Project Update

After several farmers declined to respond to our requests over the summer and early fall for interviews via email and phone, we decided to send out physical letters to their home addresses in early December. This resulted in 6 new interviews in December, for a total of 15 interviews. We also now have representatives from each of the four categories of cover crop use. We have created an account with 3Play Media.com, a professional transcription service, and have had all 15 interviews transcribed. Read more about Incentivizing Conservation: Understanding Opportunities and Barriers That Influence Iowa Farmers’ Decisions to Adopt Nutrient Management Conservation Practices Over Time Jan 2026

Quantifying Organic Nitrogen and Other Suspended Solids at High Resolutions to Investigate Nutrient Transport Patterns in Iowa Rivers Dec 2025

Project Update

The first six months of this project consisted of assembling and post-processing all the relevant existing water quality data for this project. This procedure involved querying turbidity, nutrient, sediment and flow data for the 60 sites that have been monitored by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. We have used these datasets to construct preliminary statistical models linking turbidity to particulate phosphorus and nitrogen at each of the 60 sites. We have also explored the relationship between turbidity and inorganic and organic waterborne solids. Read more about Quantifying Organic Nitrogen and Other Suspended Solids at High Resolutions to Investigate Nutrient Transport Patterns in Iowa Rivers Dec 2025

Making Woodchip Bioreactors More Accessible by Expanding Woodchip Source Materials and Increasing Supply Chain Capacity Dec 2025

Project Update

Procurement of woodchips is complete. Staudt and graduate student Pooja Timilsina have begun analysis of saturated hydraulic conductivity via permeameters and are currently on treatment 1 of 5. Each treatment will be analyzed in triplicate, pending adequate sample volume.

Procurement and air drying of woodchips: Read more about Making Woodchip Bioreactors More Accessible by Expanding Woodchip Source Materials and Increasing Supply Chain Capacity Dec 2025

Quantifying co-benefits of water quality conservation practices for wildlife of greatest conservation need in Iowa Dec 2025

Project Update

We implemented our reproducible, high-resolution workflow for generating species distribution maps for Species of Greatest Conservation Need and other focal taxa for 74 species and are continuing to troubleshoot around 50 more species. We hope to have all the species distribution models completed before the start of the spring semester. Read more about Quantifying co-benefits of water quality conservation practices for wildlife of greatest conservation need in Iowa Dec 2025

Pages

Subscribe to Iowa Nutrient Research Center RSS