Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project includes groups of farmers, researchers, and educators interested in systems-based breeding, rotation planning and management that support production and environmental goals in organic grain cropping systems. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During this reporting period, the project provided training opportunities for three graduate students, two visiting scholars, and four undergraduate students from the University of Illinois. Also, two undergraduate students from the University of Puerto Rico, a partner of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign participated in field and laboratory efforts during the summer of 2024. One student from Zamorano University (Honduras) and three students from EARTH University (Costa Rica) were also involved in soils and corn breeding research efforts in the fall semester. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Preliminary results from YRS-1&2 were shared with participants of outreach and scientific events as follows: In February 2024, we hosted a table at the Organic Grain Conference organized by The Land Connection. We conducted a listening session to understand how farmers incorporate knowledge of crops and soil traits in their management decisions to increase productivity, farming system resistance and resilience and environmental services. In July of 2024 we hosted two field days at the Illinois Organic Systems Trial. 1) Outlined the research agenda of this project to about 200 attendees of the 2024 National Association of Plant Breeders Conference, 2) We partnered with the IDEA Farm Network and The Land Connection to host a field day at the Illinois Organic Systems Trial. We welcomed approximately 35 participants, and the program focused on understanding the range of variability in corn roots, soil organic management, soil structure and farmer on-farm experiences to optimize their systems. In November 2024, we presented our findings at the Illinois Extension Meeting for trainers that hosted 24 participants. In November 2024, we presented preliminary results at the annual tri-societies meetings in San Antonio, Texas. The presentation was titled "Maize Roots and Soil Organic Matter: Experiences from an Organic Grain Systems Trial" What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The execution of activities for this project is on target. We are summarizing portions of the data for publication and planning to recruit new undergraduate students for the subsequent growing seasons. We will visit farmer collaborators to document farmer's rotation planning and to plan for the following year in which we will be evaluated existing germplasm at on-farm locations.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This multidisciplinary project has successfully completed its second year of trials designed to identify the most effective maize root ideotypes for organic agricultural practices in the Midwest. We expanded work from the 2023 growing season when we established six treatment combinations encompassing two rotation types (3- and 4-year rotations) and three fertility levels to create a gradient of soil resource conditions. These conditions are integral for evaluating a core set of maize hybrids, with the goal of pinpointing root traits that are particularly beneficial for the Midwest. Our initial phase involved assessing 15 experimental hybrids, chosen for their varied root characteristics, across these treatment combinations in 2023. We focused on evaluating plant performance traits, including root architecture, grain yield, and grain chemical composition. Additionally, we conducted agronomic performance assessments on a separate set of 150 hybrids derived from inbreds of the University of Illinois Germplasm Collection and the Elite Maize Association Mapping Panel (EMAMP). The top-performing hybrids from these assessments underwent further detailed evaluations in the summer of 2024, with a focus on root structure, function, and genetic profiles to better understand their contributions to overall performance. We assembled a set of 120 genes known to be involved in maize root architecture and physiology. Currently, we are developing a bioinformatics analysis pipeline to assess the diversity of maize root genes and determine their allele frequencies within our breeding populations. Based on root haplotype similarity, we will classify our maize germplasm into groups with distinct haplotypes and evaluate their root performance in both greenhouse and field experiments to determine how these haplotypes influence root function and overall plant performance. Our work expanded to the evaluation of soil resource condition by quantification of the influence of the six treatment combinations on soil structure, traits associated with soil organic matter fractions that might be used to predict C storage, nitrogen and water use efficiency, and productivity.

Publications

Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project includes groups of farmers, researchers, and educators interested in systems-based breeding. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has provided training opportunities for two graduate students, two visiting scholars, and undergraduate students from the University of Illinois. Also, two undergraduate students from the University of Puerto Rico, a partner of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign participated in field and laboratory efforts during the summer of 2023. One student from Zamorano University (Honduras) and three students from EARTH University (Costa Rica) have been involved in soils and corn breeding research efforts in the fall of 2023. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Preliminary results from YR-1 were shared at a workshop that included farmers, practitioners, and educators.The event was organized by the Organic Agronomy Training Service (OATS). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The execution of activities for this project is on target. Researchers are summarizing and curating the data collected in 2023 and are recruiting graduate and undergraduate students for the subsequent growing seasons. We will carry out exploratory listening sessions and focus groups to expand our educational network and document farmer's rotation planning and associated labor and purchasing logistics to identify improvements or alteration of plant and soil traits that can help farmers fulfill their planning objectives and deliver ecosystem services.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This multidisciplinary project has successfully completed its first year of trials, aiming to identify the most effective maize root ideotypes for organic agricultural practices in the Midwest. We established six treatment combinations encompassing two rotation types (3- and 4-year rotations) and three fertility levels to create a gradient of soil resource conditions. These conditions are integral for evaluating a core set of maize hybrids, with the goal of pinpointing root traits that are particularly beneficial for the Midwest. Our initial phase involved assessing 15 experimental hybrids, chosen for their varied root characteristics, across these treatment combinations in 2023. We focused on evaluating plant performance traits such as root architecture, grain yield, and the chemical composition of the grain. In addition, we conducted agronomic performance assessments on a separate set of 150 hybrids. These hybrids were derived from inbred of the University of Illinois Germplasm Collection and the Elite Maize Association Mapping Panel (EMAMP). The top-performing hybrids from these assessments will undergo further detailed evaluations in the summer of 2024. This subsequent analysis will concentrate on their root structures and functions, as well as their genetic profiles, to better understand how these factors contribute to their overall performance.

Publications