Source: PURDUE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
BIO-INTENSIFIED FIELD CROP ROTATIONS IN THE UPPER MIDWEST: QUANTIFYING EFFECTS UPON PEST MANAGEMENT AND YIELD.
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1029089
Grant No.
2022-51300-38056
Cumulative Award Amt.
$1,499,944.00
Proposal No.
2022-04041
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2022
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2026
Grant Year
2022
Program Code
[113.A]- Organic Agriculture Research & Extension Initiative
Recipient Organization
PURDUE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
WEST LAFAYETTE,IN 47907
Performing Department
Entomology
Non Technical Summary
In a four year, three state study we will assess the weed, insect and pathogen pressure upon a range of field crops in a standard organic and ecologically intensified organic system. The latter approach has never been investigated in detail. We will use on-farm, replicated trials across IN, IL, and WI. We will also evaluate the economic viability of each approach and provide real-time updates on the project via a range of outreach and extension venues.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2112410113034%
2162410114033%
2122410116033%
Knowledge Area
212 - Pathogens and Nematodes Affecting Plants; 211 - Insects, Mites, and Other Arthropods Affecting Plants; 216 - Integrated Pest Management Systems;

Subject Of Investigation
2410 - Cross-commodity research--multiple crops;

Field Of Science
1130 - Entomology and acarology; 1160 - Pathology; 1140 - Weed science;
Goals / Objectives
Our long-term goal is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the ecology of organic cropping systems. More specifically, we will develop an understanding of how key ecological factors influence the pest management considerations of organic farmers under a range of cropping regimes in the upper Midwest region.Specific objectives:Survey: in a four-year, three-state study, assess the weed, disease and beneficial and pest insect populations impacting corn, soybeans and small grains under both a "standard" and "ecologically-intensified" rotation system.Economic analysis: using data collected from both university farms and working commercial farms, assess the costs and benefits associated with these varying rotations.On-farm demonstrations: Commercial organic farmers in each state will implement these practices at their farms, including field day demonstrations, in the final two years of the project.Extension and outreach: Our team is comprised of extension specialists spanning multiple disciplines. With a combination of field days at university and grower farms, coupled with real-time SMS surveys and a regional grower advisory panel, we will transmit results and plans as the work unfolds, affording us the opportunity to course correct and alter the approach as needed.Recommendations: At the conclusion of the project, we expect to collate the results into a comprehensive set of recommendations, including university fact-sheets, that will comprise a knowledge base that will fill a current void in unbiased, research-based guidance for the most progressive organic field crop producers.
Project Methods
This study will focus on establishing field-based research at both university-owned research farms and on commercial organic farms. The university sites include the Northeast Purdue Ag Center (NEPAC), the University of Wisconsin Arlington Agricultural Research Station, and the Western Illinois University (WIU) Allison Organic Research and Demonstration Farm. These university-owned research farms allow us a level of fine-scale control, in-field replication and provide a location in each state to demonstrate our efforts through field days in the latter half of the project. Our network of seven farmer collaborators will allow us to collect working farm data under different management systems, soils, and contexts - including agronomic and economic data, in addition to providing all the benefits associated with larger plot work.At each university farm, a four year on-farm research trial utilizing a randomized complete block design with 8 replications/site will be implemented. NEPAC-Purdue site is a total of 30 acres, while the sites at both UW and WIU have approximately 80 acres available. All of these sites are certified organic.There are two organic cropping regimes, hereafter referred to as "treatments", placed at each location: a standard system and an ecologically-intensified system (details follow).Each treatment list includes both corn and soybeans, which are inarguably the key grain crops in the region. Comparison of multiple parameters, including yields, in those cropping years will be a key determinant of how well the ecologically intensified rotations build soil N and reduce pest pressures.Standard systemAt each university farm (IN, IL, and WI), the crops described below will be planted in blocks at least 60 ft. wide, with a split-plot design that includes two entries per cropping season - meaning that we will have the opportunity to document each crop twice during the life of the experiment, addressing a key weakness of our 2021 proposal. Please see the plot plan schematic below for further details. All plots will be taken to yield and harvested with a small plot combine (owned by PDs Krupke and Telenko). Year 1 (oats are main crop): Oats will be drilled with medium red clover in early spring and harvested in July. Mowing of medium red clover will occur 1-2 times to prevent weeds from going to seed.Year 2 (corn is main crop): Manure (target manure rate = 100 lbs available N/a) and medium red clover biomass will be incorporated with shallow tillage in early May and shallow tillage will also occur immediately prior to planting corn (32k/a on 30-in rows) in mid- to late May. Mechanical weed control will include 1-2 blind cultivations and 1-2 row cultivations . Shallow tillage will occur after corn harvest followed by drilling of cereal rye (or broadcasting of cereal rye prior to tillage).Year 3 (soybean is main crop): Cereal rye will be terminated with tillage in early May andshallow tillage will also occur immediately prior to planting soybeans on 30-in rows in late May. Mechanical weed control will include 1-2 blind cultivations and 2-3 row cultivations. Shallow tillage will occur after harvest to level cultivation ridges.Year 4: identical to Year 1.Ecologically intensified systemCrops planted in 30 ft. wide strips and all legume crop and cover crop seeds inoculated with biological seed treatments (rhizobia and mycorrhizae, (USDA-NRCS 2015)) to promote root health and nutrient acquisition.Year 1 (oats are main crop): Oat and medium red clover seed will be treated with appropriate N fixing inoculants, drilled in early spring and harvested in July. The red clover will be mowed if needed to prevent weeds from going to seed. The red clover will be terminated with shallow tillage prior to drilling cereal rye and crimson clover (both treated with appropriate N fixing inoculants).Year 2 (soybean is main crop):Soybean seeds will be treated with an N-fixing inoculant and planted no-till on 30-in rows into standing cereal rye and crimson clover. Crimping will occur ~2 weeks after rye anthesis allowing crimson clover to develop mature seed.Year 3 (corn is main crop): Manure (target manure rate = 100 lbs available N/a) and volunteer cover crops will be incorporated with shallow tillage in early May and shallow tillage will also occur immediately before planting corn. Corn seed will be treated with an appropriate N-fixing inoculant and planted in mid- to late May (32k/a on 30-in rows). In rows 2 and 5 (assuming 6 row plots), corn seed will be blended with a large-seeded bush cowpea @ 30% of seed count. The planter will be adjusted to deliver a full corn population, accounting for corn seed displaced by cowpea. Mechanical weed control will include 1-2 blind cultivations and 1-2 row cultivations. After corn is harvested, compost will be broadcast @ 1 ton/a followed by shallow tillage.Year 4: identical to Year 1.

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

Outputs
Target Audience: Purdue/ENTM: A presentation by PD Krupke at the Indiana Organic Grain Farmer Meeting (February 2024) highlighted beneficial insect trapping results. Target audience was organic/transitional growers, ca. 50 in attendance Purdue/Weed Science/Pathology: A presentation by Telenko at the OGRAIN conference in Madison, WI (February 2024) talking about Integrated Disease Management in Organic Grains. Target audience was organic/transitional growers, ca. 100 in attendance UW: A poster presentation by the Post Doc Tatiane Severo Silva at the Marbleseed Organic Farming Conference (February 2024), La Crosse, WI. The post highlighted crop yield, weed population, and insect diversity in both standard and eco-intensive systems. Changes/Problems: Purdue/NEPAC: No major issues to report. Generally good planting and growing conditions overall. Giant ragweed remains our major challenge throughout much of our study field. Cultivation and weed zapper have helped, but this is still the major issue in this field. UW: There were issues with soybean emergence due to wet conditions, seed placement in the dense biomass of the cereal rye cover crop, and slug damage. For these reasons, the soybeans needed to be replanted. Additionally, due to the rain and wet conditions, weed control using the cultivator in the corn plots was challenging, leading to high weed pressure from mid to late season. The soybean plots also experienced high weed pressure. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Purdue/ENTM: One post-doctoral scholar (beginning May 2023) and one PhD student (beginning August 2022) are funded by the project and are conducting the above and below-ground insect surveys in each of the treatments, respectively. Purdue/Weed Science/Pathology: UW: One post-doctoral scholar How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?See previous section, re: Indiana Organic Grain conference What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Purdue/ENTM: continue ground level and above-ground insect surveys, soil samples in 2025 Purdue/Weed Science/Pathology: continue to monitor weed populations in the treatments and collect soil samples for weed seedbank evaluation. UW: continue ground level and above-ground insect assessment, soil samples in 2025

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Survey: in a four-year, three-state study, assess the weed, disease and beneficial and pest insect populations impacting corn, soybeans and small grains under both a "standard" and "ecologically-intensified" rotation system. Purdue/ENTM: Prior to planting, collected two sets of soil samples from each plot, one to quantify nutrient/organic matter, etc., and one to measure microbiota in the plot. Established a series of above-ground and ground level insect traps shortly after planting and monitored through crop maturity. Above-ground traps consisted of plastic intercept traps mounted at 1 m above crop canopy. Ground level traps are pitfall traps. Each trap was checked weekly and contents returned to lab for identification. We have completed identification to family level of all pitfall traps and approximately 50% of intercept traps. Purdue/Weed Science. Soil samples were collected from each plot at each field trial site (WIU, U of WI, Purdue NEPAC) at the beginning of the summer. Soil samples were shipped to Purdue, and are in cold storage. We plan to start the grow out procedure on these soil samples in December or January. Another set of soil samples will be collected at the beginning of each field season for growouts and seedbank analysis. In-field weed density and biomass samples were collected in August from each site. Data are being entered into spreadsheets and will be summarized during the spring semester. In 2024, weed seedbank growouts were completed for the soil samples collected in 2023. Additional soil samples were collected in 2024 to monitor changes in the soil seedbank induced by the treatments. These soil sample growouts will be completed during the winter of 24/25 after the samples have incubated in cold storage for a couple of months to break dormancy. Purdue/Plant Pathology. Plots were scouted all season in 2024 - by the end of the season we documented low levels of Septoria brown spot and frogeye leaf spot (FLS) in the soybeans. In corn we found very low levels of tar spot on ear leaf (EL) and 2 leaves above and below. UW: nothing to report n-farm demonstrations: Commercial organic farmers in each state will implement these practices at their farms, including field day demonstrations, in the final two years of the project. Purdue/ENTM: Two farmers (Mills and Federer) continue to work with Adair and Krupke and communicate on the project. No field days scheduled so far, tentative June/July of 2025. Purdue/Weed Science/Pathology: Nothing to report for Pathology. Nothing to report for Weed Science UW: Before planting two sets of soil samples were collected from each plot, one to quantify nutrient/organic matter, etc., and one to measure microbiota in the plot. Set up a series of above-ground (plastic intercept traps mounted at 1 m above crop canopy) and ground level (pitfall traps) insect traps at crop emergence and monitored through crop maturity. The insects were collected from each trap weekly, placed in jars with 70% ethanol and stored in a freezer until identification. We have completed identification to family level of approximately 15% of the traps. We also assessed weed pressure in mid-season (late-July), identifying and counting the main weeds using a square meter quadrat at three locations within each plot. End-of-season, soybean and corn stands were taken before harvest. Economic analysis: using data collected from both university farms and working commercial farms, assess the costs and benefits associated with these varying rotations. Purdue trial yields: Crop/System/ Yield Average/ Moisture Average Corn / Standard / 85.8 / 26.4 Oats / Standard / 49.1 / 14 Corn / Eco-intensive / 54 / 26.5 Soybean / Eco-intensive / 17.9 / 11 U of Wisconsin trial yields: Crop / System / Yield Average / Moisture Average Corn / Standard / 160 / 18 Oats / Standard / 101 / - Corn / eco-intensive / 180 / 18 Soybean / eco-intensive / 26.6 / 12.2

Publications


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

    Outputs
    Target Audience:Purdue/Pathology: NEPAC Organic Field Day on Organic disease management - target audience was organic/transitional grower and educators ~40 in attendance. UW Organic Field Day Arlington, Wisconsin Organic Field Day: August 2023 - 70 participants, in person. WIU: Summer field day attendees, undergraduate classes and twilight tour attendees this fall Changes/Problems: Purdue/NEPAC: Primary issues were related to weather, specifically precipitation. Oat planting on 04/26/23, was 3-4 weeks delayed due to wet soils. Almost no precipitation in June resulted in poor stand establishment and very low yields. Soybeans were planted in both treatments on 05/23/23. August and September combined precipitation of less than 1" resulted in poor yields. Two plots (one standard organic, one eco-intensified) were lost to giant ragweed pressure early in season. Two passes with electric weed zapper reduced giant ragweed pressure significantly. NEPAC could use some upgraded row crop cultivators for row crops, such as the AccuraFlow that WIU has for their site. UW: Significant drought conditions impacted yield in the ecointensive plots. WIU: Very poor (<25%) stands established in the ecointensive no-till soybeans plots due to moisture depletion by the cereal rye/crimson clover cover crops during serious drought conditions (0.3" over 50 days in May and June). These plots were mowed in early September with the exception of 2 small 6 row x 50' subplots that were taken to yield. Lack of student labor in summer 23 limited some field activities (e.g., insect sampling). What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Purdue/ENTM: One post-doctoral scholar (beginning May 2023) and one PhD student (beginning August 2022) are funded by the project and are conducting the above and below-ground insect surveys in each of the treatments, respectively. Purdue/Weed Science: One predoctoral visiting scholar (Pedro Correa) has been recruited and is doing the weed seedbank growouts and processing the in-season weed counts and weed biomass samples. One visiting scholar (Ivis Miranda) was recruited and monitored for diseases and soil sampled for pathogens during the 2023 season. University of Wisconsin: One post-doctoral scholar is funded by the project and is collecting all research data from our UW site. WIU: 1 undergraduate student worker assisted with plot management in summer 23. A visiting scholar from Italy will perform some biological analyses in winter 24. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Purdue/ENTM: continue insect surveys, soil samples in 2024 Purdue/Weed Science: Continue to collect soil samples for weed seedbank analysis, collect mid-season weed density and biomass samples. Weed seedbank growouts will be done after cold stratification. Weed biomass samples are air dried and data is processed in the fall. Continue to collect seasonal disease data in 2024 WIU: Good stands of cereal rye/crimson clover have been established in plots slated for ecointensive soybeans in 2024. Plots that had soybeans in 2023 have been shallowly tilled in preparation for ecointensive corn and standard oats in 2024. Continue to collect data into 2024.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? Survey: in a four-year, three-state study, assess the weed, disease and beneficial and pest insect populations impacting corn, soybeans and small grains under both a "standard" and "ecologically-intensified" rotation system. Purdue/ENTM: Prior to planting, collected two sets of soil samples from each plot, one to quantify nutrient/organic matter, etc., and one to measure microbiota in the plot. Established a series of above-ground and ground level insect traps shortly after planting and monitored through crop maturity. Above-ground traps consisted of plastic intercept traps mounted at 1 m above crop canopy. Ground level traps are pitfall traps. Each trap was checked weekly and contents returned to lab for identification. We have completed identification to family level of all pitfall traps and approximately 50% of intercept traps. Purdue/Weed Science. Soil samples were collected from each plot at each field trial site (WIU, U of WI, Purdue NEPAC) at the beginning of the summer. Soil samples were shipped to Purdue, and are in cold storage. We plan to start the grow out procedure on these soil samples in December or January. Another set of soil samples will be collected at the beginning of each field season for growouts and seedbank analysis. In-field weed density and biomass samples were collected in August from each site. Data are being entered into spreadsheets and will be summarized during the spring semester. Purdue/Plant Pathology. Disease was monitored in-season and on 7 Sep disease ratings were collected that included foliar severity of frogeye leaf spot, brown spot, and downy mildew in lower and upper canopies. In addition, sudden death syndrome incidence and severity was rated and green canopy percentage. Data is currently being tabulated and will be analyzed this winter. UW. All data were collected according to protocols and samples were sent to collaborators at Purdue for analysis. WIU: Soil samples were collected (0-6") in early June 23 (after soybeans were planted but prior to emergence) and split into subsamples submitted for routine chemical analysis and subsamples stored @ -40C for biological analyses. In addition, on the same day, a larger volume of soil (~ 2 liters) was collected from each plot and transported to Purdue for weed seed bank analysis. High resolution imagery of all plots was collected with a drone in mid-June. Image analysis software was recently obtained for stand/phenotype analysis. In early June, soil moisture sensors were installed @ 6" and 24" in 1 standard and 1 eco-intensive soybean plots. Insect surveys were not performed in 2023. Economic analysis: using data collected from both university farms and working commercial farms, assess the costs and benefits associated with these varying rotations. Purdue: Yields shown below, no economic analysis performed as of yet. Crop Systerm Yield Average Moisture Average Soybean Standard 34.23 17.7% Soybean Eco-Intensive 27.38 21.8% Oat/Clover Standard 14.60 10.8% Oat/Clover Eco-Intensive 12.84 12.7% UW: Yields shown below, no economic analysis performed as of yet. Crop Systerm Yield Average Moisture Average Soybean Standard 75.6 11.9% Soybean Eco-Intensive 37.4 14.2% Oat/Clover Standard 56.7 18.6% Oat/Clover Eco-Intensive 57.4 19.1% WIU Oats were harvested on 7/19 and yields ranged from the low 80s to over 100 bu/a. Yield monitor data is being cleaned and analyzed to obtain variability metrics and total yields for each plot. Soybeans were harvested on 11/5 and weigh wagon and yield monitor data is being analyzed. Standard soybean plot yields ranged from the low 50s to over 70 bu/a. All field activities were documented and economic analyses will be performed using custom rates in winter 2024. Extension and outreach: Purdue/Organic Ag: The project rationale and design were introduced to various audiences during the following 2023 extension events and print materials: Northeast Indiana Organic Field Day - 32 participants, in-person Northeast Purdue Ag Center Field Day - 161 participants, in-person Huntington University Intro to Agriculture course organic field visit - 21 participants, in person Flanagan State Bank Organic Newsletter: November 2023 - 280 recipients, print and digital WIU: The project was introduced to a variety of audiences including summer field day attendees (~ 90), undergraduate classes and twilight tour attendees this fall (~20).

    Publications