TRANSITIONING TO ORGANIC FORAGE CROPPING SYSTEMS, AN INTEGRATED RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND EXTENSION PROJECT IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: OTHER GRANTS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1013446
• Grant No.: 2017-51106-27003
• Cumulative Award Amt.: $499,924.00
• Proposal No.: 2017-03410
• Project Start Date: Sep 1, 2017
• Project End Date: Aug 31, 2021
• Grant Year: 2017
• Program Code: [112.E]- Organic Transitions

Recipient Organization
MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY
1301 EAST MAIN STREET
MURFREESBORO,TN 37132

Performing Department
Agribusiness Agriscience

Non Technical Summary
This project proposes to increase the sustainability and resilience of forage-based production systems in the middle Tennessee region by promoting the transition to organic forage systems and adaptation of management practices to observed and anticipated climate changes by posting and answering the following questions: How can scientists/producers design and manage organic-transitional forage production systems that could provide adequate productivity, quality, and economic benefits? How can this transition contribute to enhanced agroecological function, climate change mitigation (reduced GHG emission) and long-term conservation of soil systems? How will new knowledge be delivered to producers, educators, students, and other stakeholders to make them understand the opportunities and issues associated with organic transition and identify appropriate solutions? The middle Tennessee region is of particular interest because of the importance of forage production and organic agriculture in local economy and the representativeness and diversity of its forage agriculture in this dramatically changing climate and land use. The project will take advantages of existing research infrastructure and educational/extension collaboration to complete the following tasks: conduct field-based research in a partnership between stakeholders and scientists for better understanding of the influence of rotational and intercropping on greenhouse gas emission, crop yield, forage nutritive value, and soil health in integrated transitional forage systems; quantify and characterize water, greenhouse gas, and energy fluxes and dynamics under transitional forage agroecosystems; develop optimal management practices that optimize both agronomic/economic profitability and ecosystem function; develop an educational and outreach paradigm for efficient transfer of project findings to stakeholders and public individuals.

Animal Health Component

35%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

35%

Applied

35%

Developmental

30%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
205	1699	1060	50%
204	1699	1060	50%

Knowledge Area
204 - Plant Product Quality and Utility (Preharvest); 205 - Plant Management Systems;

Subject Of Investigation
1699 - Pasture and forage crops, general/other;

Field Of Science
1060 - Biology (whole systems);

Keywords

forage cropping system

greenhouse gas emission

organic transition

soil health

soil system

Goals / Objectives
Conduct field-based research and on-farm demonstrations in a partnership between stakeholders and scientists for better understanding of the influence of rotational and intercropping on greenhouse gas emission, crop yield, forage nutritive value, and soil health in integrated transitioning forage systems.Quantify and characterize how transitioning into organic forage management practices can affect the water, greenhouse gas, and energy fluxes and dynamics in predominant forage production agroecosystems of the fescue belt region.Developoptimalmanagementpractices thatoptimizebothagronomic/economic profitability andecosystemfunctionin transitioning forage production systems.Develop aneducational and outreach paradigm for efficient transfer of project findings to stakeholders and public individuals. Organize training and extension efforts on the farming strategies, certification processes, and economic decision-making while transitioning to organic forage production systems.

Project Methods
Our plan is to conduct a multi-year, multi-disciplinary, and multi-institutional research, education, and extension project in Middle Tennessee. Our approach will involve the collection and integration of soil, crop, and atmospheric data along with economic analysis and extension effort across two transitional system studies (an integrated forage cropping system study and a large-scale forage agroecosystem comparison study). Particularly, the cropping system study will evaluate predominant and novel cool/warm-season, annual/perennial forage systems in Middle Tennessee; and the agroecosystem study will focus on the quintessential cool-season grass-based agroecosystems in the fescue belt region. Data and research findings from two studies will be compared, integrated and shared among scientists and producers in the state and will also be incorporated into pertinent courses offered by both institutions.For objective 1, a three-yr transitional forage cropping system experiment will be conducted at the UT Middle Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center in Spring Hill, TN, to evaluate 1) greenhouse gas emission; 2) forage yield, nutritive value, and economic return; as well as 3) soil health and quality of various organic transitioning forage production systems in Middle Tennessee. The design of the forage cropping system study will be based on communication with local producers, NRCS agents and established research trials from the project Co-PD (Dr. Nave). The soil type is Maury silt loam (a fine, mixed, active, mesic Typic Paleudalfs) with average long-term precipitation and temperature of 1,397 mm yr-1 and 15oC, respectively. The whole dedicated plot will be managed according to the NOP-guidelines with large buffer zones (> 20 m) to adjacent plots, as the entire plot area will be transitioned to certified status at the end of the study. The experimental design will be a randomized complete block design with four blocks. Systems will include an annual forage crop rotation system (cool-season and warm-season grass-legume mixtures) and four perennial forage systems (cool-season and warm-season grass monocultures, or interseeded with legumes), totaling 5 treatments. The annual forage crop rotation system will be composed by double cropping winter wheat and Austrian winter pea (Pisum sativum L.) followed by double cropping sorghum-sundangrass hybrid and cowpea [Vigna unguiculata(L.) Walp.]. The four forage perennial systems will include: tall fescue, bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon(L.) Pers.], tall fescue interseeded with alfalfa (Medicago Sativa L.), and bermudagrass interseeded with alfalfa. Greenhouse gas emission, forage productivity and nutritive value, and soil physical and chemical properties will be measured based on established protocols used in previous research led by the project management team. For objective 2, a large-scale flux tower-based agroecosystem comparison study will be conducted at the MTSU Experiential Learning and Research Center in Lascassas, TN based on an established agroecosystem study conducted by the PD (Dr. Cui) to evaluate 1) CO2, water vapor fluxes and energy balance; 2) greenhouse gas emission; 3) forage composition, production, nutritive value, and economic return; as well as 4) soil health and quality of an organically managed forage agroecosystem versus a conventionally managed agroecosystem. The research site is located on a Hillwood gravelly silt loam (12 to 20% slopes, Alfisol, thermic Oxyaquic Fraglossudalf) in the climatic transition zones of the middle Tennessee region. Two quintessential cool-season (Tall fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, and Orchardgrass) dominated agroecosystems (1 hectare each) will be used. Both pastures have been established for more than three years and primarily used for hay production and periodical animal grazing. Botanical composition was evaluated between two systems in late 2016 and indicated no-significant difference in primary cool-season grass composition (tall fescue, 40%; kentucky bluegrass, 10%; orchardgrass, 20%; other forbs and legumes, 30%). Forage crop management, forage productivity and nutritive value, soil physical and chemical properties, and flux-tower based ecosystem measurement and greenhouse gas emission will be measured based on established protocols used in previous research led by the project management team.A key objective of this study is to determine the cost of transitioning from conventional forage production to organic forage production. Additionally, determining the annual cost of organic production once the transition phase is complete is integral. Partial budgeting will be used to compare conventional and organic production costs. Similarly, a sensitivity analysis will be performed on key cost categories that are identified through the field work. Forage production data will be used to estimate and compare the number of cattle grazing days and potential beef production in the organic system as well as the conventional forage production system. This will provide a method to estimate a break-even price for the organic system.We will develop educational materials and outreach events to communicate our research findings to Tennessee livestock and forage producers interested in transitioning to organic or already certified in the second and the third year of the project. We expect that producers will learn from the information delivered by this project and eventually adopt organic management practices to gain better organic forage yield and produce high-quality livestock. To achieve this goal, a comprehensive, multifaceted education and extension program will be implemented properly throughout the project duration period.

Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/21

Outputs
Target Audience:The forage cropping system team has completed all tasks during last year of this project, which included completion of field experiments, completion of sample collection and analysis, and presenting key findings at professional meetings. The target audience were graduate students, technical staff, forage and livestock researchers and scientists, and forage producers and extension agents. The efforts for this reporting period included completion of all sample analysis, field practice experiences, classroom instruction, outreach and services including thesis defense on the subject, formal project instruction and professional meeting presentations given by supported faculty members and graduate students. The main target audiences for the soil science team include organic farmers and farmers who are interested in transitioning from conventional farming to organic farming. Our target audiences also include students and researchers from agronomy and soil science communities who are interested in organic forage production and soil health and also consumers who are interested in organic livestock products. Across the entire duration of this project, one of the most important target audience groups was the project research team across two institutions. Both teams had collaboratively established, maintained, and gathered data from two research plots and completed the transition/organic certification processes. We have successfully supported one MS student (Mr. Kubesch) and one Post-doctoral associate (Dr. Xu) at the University of Tennessee. Several undergraduate student assistants were recruited throughout the duration of the project period. Meanwhile, the integrated teaching component focusing on organic forage production has been incorporated into several courses offered at MTSU. A large number of undergraduate students had witnessed how a systematically designed field study was conducted and how organic forage systems could become sustainable. All project PD/Co-PDs as well as graduate student and Post-doctoral research associate have delivered many presentation and conference poster at several regional and national conferences, such as the American Society of Agronomy Annual Conference and the Southern ASA conferences during the project period. This ensures the important research findings could be communicated well to the entire scientific community. At the same time, several outreach events have been conducted at the beginning years of the project, however, the COVID pandemic greatly limited the extent and frequency of outreach events that could be targeted towards producers and the general public. From the extension and outreach side, the target audiences include livestock and forage producers, producers considering transitioning to organic livestock and forage production, and other professionals in the field. After short discussions with producers, it is evident that many livestock producers utilize many organic forage production practices or lack of conventional forage production practices. This means many producers would not be faced with as severe of a challenge when converting land to organic production. In other words, these producers when not suffer forage yield loss due to not providing an inorganic fertilizer or succumb to weed pressure, they do not utilize inorganic fertilizer or chemicals to suppress weeds. This is an important target audience in that many livestock producers are technically producing organic forage without being certified, and they need assistance with extending this to the livestock production system. Thus, this group was identified as a key audience. Changes/Problems:There were no changes or problems encountered during the last reporting period. Overall, from the beginning of the project, the field experiment was delayed by 8 months in 2018 due to difficulties in establishing organic bermudagrass and alfalfa. Eventually, we were able to overcome these issues and successfully conduct the research for two consecutive years. Additionally, the COVID pandemic greatly limited the extent and frequency of outreach events that could be targeted towards producers and the general public. There were no other issues or changes to report. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In 2018, graduate students and field staff had the opportunity to advance their knowledge in forage establishment and management transition from conventional to organic production. Training has included literature review and one-on-one conversations with faculty members involved in this project. In 2019, training activities included graduate students and field staff learning more about organic forage production through hands-on practices, literature review and one-on-one conversation with their mentors. Professional development included two University of Tennessee Plant Science Department seminars were presented to show preliminary results from this project, and one conference presentation at a professional meeting. In 2020, we had completed several conference/professional meeting presentations. We have also completed a thesis, and more than five manuscripts that were submitted by the end of the field trial. Dr. Sutie Xu, a postdoc partially supported by this funding, received rigorous training from project PIs on organic farming practices as well as to conduct field and lab-based research. She was also given opportunities to gain analytical skills, mentor undergraduate and graduate students, publish findings, and develop ideas for grant proposals. Her involvement in this project for two years played a great role for her to secure a tenure-track Assistant Professor position. Two undergraduate students (Michael Russell and Sydney Logwood), partially supported by this grant, have been trained by PI Jagadamma on soil sampling and laboratory soil analysis in the last year of the project. Meanwhile, numerous undergraduate students have been recruited in the previous years at both UTK and MTSU to gain hand-on experience on forage planting, sampling, and analysis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated through professional presentations, field day presentations, publications including scientific publications, a thesis completed on the topic, and producer forage field day showing Southeastern producers first-hand data from our project. The outreach component of this project along with most projects was severely hindered due to the COVID19 pandemic. The pandemic also resulted in a considerable amount of outreach focusing on the impacts of COVID19. However, information concerning organic forage production economics was presented at more than tenindividual meetings with more than 500total participants including producers and other livestock and forage professionals within the duration of the project period. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Conduct field-based research and on-farm demonstrations in a partnership between stakeholders and scientists. The field study at the Middle Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center, in Spring Hill, TN indicated that botanical composition fluctuated as a consequence of establishment dynamics and weed competition. Weed competition ranged from 200 to 800 g kg-1 in the perennial swards, and variably affected forage quantity and quality. Nutritive value was sufficient for most livestock operations across treatments, with average crude protein of all treatments remaining ~150 g kg-1 across two growing seasons. The annual rotation was the highest-yielding treatment, producing more than 6 Mg ha-1, though tall fescue and tall fescue-alfalfa produced (~4 Mg ha-1) without associated establishment concern. For transitioning organic producers, the annual rotation, tall fescue, or tall fescue mixed with alfalfa treatments might best serve their operations contingent on weed competition and establishment concerns. The research data from the MTSU site indicated that annual systems had the greatest productivity (12.7 Mg ha-1) followed two perennial systems, including old world bluestem-sainfoin (11.3 Mg ha-1) and bermudagrass-alfalfa (10.3 Mg ha-1) bicultures. Annual system also indicated limited nutritive value advantages, low mineral concentration, and poor economic return due to annual cultivation and high labor input. Perennial systems, particularly old world bluestems-based bicultures, indicated great adaptation, radiation use efficiency, and soil carbon contribution. Monthly initiation biomass greatly affected several nutritive value indices (P < 0.05, R2 ≈ 0.5) within many forage systems. We concluded that, under organic forage production, annual systems could offer excellent yield and biomass production. However, in the long run, perennial bicultures would lead to better economic return and ecological benefits. Soil results showed that perennial mixtures have greater potential to improve soil health than monocultures, especially total nitrogen, total organic carbon, and mineral nitrogen. Annual mixtures also improved soil organic carbon and total nitrogen, but had some undesirable effect on soil properties including decreased extractable potassium. Soil microbial biomass carbon changed with season and was more sensitive to the weather in each year than the species compositional changes. The soil health team also conducted a laboratory microcosm experiment to understand the climate resiliency of soils under organic management. Results showed that soil respiration from organic pasture system was more sensitive to wet/dry cycles, while that from conventional pasture system was more sensitive to temperature changes. The effect of wet/dry cycle on soil respiration was greater at higher temperatures, and the temperature sensitivity was greater under wet/dry cycles than constant moisture conditions. We also found that microbial biomass carbon was positively correlated to respiration, and negatively related to Q10. Quantify and characterize how transitioning into organic forage management practices can affect the water, greenhouse gas, and energy fluxes and dynamics in predominant forage production agroecosystems of the fescue belt region. A large organic pasture forage system was investigated in this project to better understand its productivity as well as the dynamics of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and hydrological responses (e.g. evapotranspiration, ET). Throughout the duration of this study, the entire pasture ecosystem remained a strong carbon sink, with the NEE fluctuating from -1.2 to -1.9. The cumulative ET was around 750 mm per year; and the overall ecosystem water use efficiency (EWUE) were calculated as 61 g C kg-1 water across all growing seasons. Overall, under organic forage production, warm-season vegetation encroachment in the summer could result in greater forage biomass production leading to greater cumulative NEE and EWUE on a system level, compared with commonly fertilized cool-season pasture systems (tall fescue and/or orchardgrass-based pastures). Well managed defoliation and interseeding of legumes should be encouraged to maintain adequate nutritive status. Forage production summer slump was not observed on the large pasture field mainly due to the warm-season encroachment. Managing cool-season pastures organically could result in greater carbon sequestration potential and soil health benefit in the long run. Developoptimalmanagementpractices thatoptimizebothagronomic/economic profitability andecosystemfunctionin transitioning forage production systems. As indicated in our results, economic benefit and output-to-input ratio varied greatly across different forage systems. Despite greater yield and output value, annual systems incurred huge seed costs (near 20% of the total input cost), and much greater repair and labor costs compared to perennial systems due to the requirement on annual planting, harvesting, and tillage; thus, resulting in negative profit on a system basis. Across all treatments, seeds, labor, repair, and fuel costs represent the top-ranking cost categories for production input. Additionally, a fixed rate organic inspection cost was used for all treatments due to our small-plot setting. We anticipate that the actual per-hectare cost should be much lower leading to better profitability on much larger production scales. Despite slightly higher seed costs, warm-season grass-based systems clearly indicated better economic profitability compared to cool-season-based systems largely due to greater yield. We believe the true economic return should be greater if organic producers are willing to diversify their field operation and product delivery instead of organic hay alone (e.g., produce certified forage seeds, beef cattle, dairy products). Develop aneducational and outreach paradigm for efficient transfer of project findings to stakeholders and public individuals. Organize training and extension efforts on the farming strategies, certification processes, and economic decision-making while transitioning to organic forage production systems The initial outreach and Extension programming has begun through a program entitled Managing Forage Risk in the Mid-South led by Dr. Griffith in 2018. This program addresses many of the risks faced by forage producers and some strategies to reduce or eliminate those risks. Many of those strategies are more closely related to organic forage production than conventional forage production though the management strategies can be adapted to either system. In the second and the third year of the project, Dr. Griffith has continued the information dissemination effort through various Outreach and Extension programming sponsored by the UTIA, but mainly continues through the Managing Forage Risk in the Mid-South Program. Additionally, Dr. Griffith has been working with a few producers on an individual basis to enhance organic forage production through grazing practices. Dr. Griffith also presented economic data and focused on using research data to construct transition and maintenance budgets for organic forage production. In doing this, this helped producers better understand the risks, challenges, and costs of transitioning to organic forage production. At the same time, we calculated the cost of production on a forage yield and nutritive basis which will provide a pure estimate of costs to forage and livestock production; and continued to work with individual producers who are establishing or reestablishing forages and how to reduce costs throughout the life of the forage stand. The notable accomplishments are with producers who have successfully converted to organic forage production. However, other notable accomplishments are producers who did not convert to organic production, because it was not suitable for their management and financial well-being.

Publications

• Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Kubesch, Jonathan, "Forage species selection for transitional organic production in the Southeastern United States. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2020. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/5844
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Griffith A.P. Top Money Eaters in Cow-Calf Production.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Griffith A.P. Budgeting Freezer Beef Production.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Griffith, A.P. 2021. Making Money in the Spring and Summer with Cattle. Tennessee Cattle Business, May
• Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Xu, S., Jagadamma, S., Oakes, R.N., Cui, S., Byers, E., and Li, Z.,. 2021. Potential and Challenges of Growing Cover Crops in Organic Production Systems. In: Cover Crops and Sustainable Agriculture, Islam, R., and Sherman, B (Eds)., CRC Press, A Science Pulishers Book. p 28-40.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Jagadamma, S., Xu, S., Oakes, R., and Cui, S. 2020. Forage production and soil health in organic forage cropping systems. UT Beef and Forage Center Meeting (Oral-Invited), December 15. Virtual (presenting author is highlighted)
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2021 Citation: Xu, S., Jagadamma, S., Oakes, R.N., and Cui, S. Soil health is affected by species compositional changes in organic forage systems in southeastern USA.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2021 Citation: Li, Z., S. Xu, N. Rajan, S. Nair, S. Jagadamma, R. Nave, J. Kubesch, G. Bates, D. McIntosch, and S. Cui. Productivity and Nutritive Value of Five No-input Certified Organic Forage Cropping Systems with Minimum Tillage.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2021 Citation: Xu, S., Jagadamma, S., and Cui, S. Soil organic carbon cycling in response to increased temperature and wet/dry cycles in organic and conventional forage production systems.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2021 Citation: Kubesch, J.O.C.*, R.L.G. Nave, S. Cui, G.E. Bates, D.M. Butler, and V. R. Pantalone. 2021. Forage species selections for transitional organic production in the Southeastern United States. Agron. J.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2021 Citation: Kubesch, J.O.C.*, R.L.G. Nave, A.P. Griffith, S. Cui, G.E. Bates, D.M. Butler, and V.R. Pantalone. 2021. Economic outcomes of cool and warm-season swards in transitioning organic swards. Agron. J.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Griffith A.P. Beef and Forage Production Resources.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Griffith, A.P. 2020. Fescue Hay in May and Pasture Thoughts. Tennessee Cattle Business, May.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Griffith, A.P. 2019. Drought: D�j� vu All Over Again. Tennessee Cattle Business, November.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Kubesch, J., R.L.G. Nave, S. Cui, G. E. Bates, and D.M. Butler. 2020. Seeing the forage through the weeds: weed competition in transitioning organic systems. International Annual Meetings ASA-CSSA-SSSA  Virtual.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Kubesch, J., and R.L.G. Nave, S. Cui, A. Griffith, G. E. Bates, and D.M. Butler. 2020. Optimal forage species selection for southeastern transitional or low-input production. 2020 American Forage and Grassland Council Conference  Greenville/SC.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Xu, S., Jagadamma, S., Oakes, R.N., and Cui, S. 2020. Soil Health Influenced by Forage Composition in Organic Systems. ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting. Virtual meeting. November 9-11, 2020
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Xu, S., Jagadamma, S., and Cui, S. 2020. Temperature and Wet/Dry Cycles Effects on Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics under Organic Forage Farming. ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting. Virtual meeting. November 9-11, 2020
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Kubesch, J., R.L. Nave, G.E. Bates, S. Cui, and D.M. Butler. 2019. Forage species selection for transitional organic production in Middle Tennessee. ASA-CSSA-SSSA, San Antonio, TX, Nov. 10-13.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Cui, S. 2019. Modeling CO2 and H2O from a cool-season dominated native prairie in the climate transition zone of the U.S. ASA-CSSA-SSSA, San Antonio, TX, Nov. 10-13.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Kubesch, J. 2020. Optimal forage species selection for southeastern transitional or low-input production. AFGC, Greenville, SC, Jan. 5-8.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Kubesch, J. 2019. Forage species selection for southeastern transitional or low-input production systems. UT Beef and Forage Center Research and Recommendation Meeting, Knoxville, TN. Dec. 17.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Griffith A.P. Top Money Eaters in Cow-Calf Production. Tennessee Forage and Grassland Conference, 2019.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Griffith A.P. Tennessee Master Small Ruminant: Forage Risk. Tennessee Master Small Ruminant Producer Program. 2019.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Griffith A.P. Tennessee Advanced Master Beef Producer: Marketing and Management, Forage Risk. 2019.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Griffith A.P. Economics of Hay of Different Quality. 2019.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Griffith A.P. Grass Fed Beef Operations: Economics and Considerations.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Griffith, A.P. Pasture, Rangeland and Forage Insurance as a Risk Management Tool. University of Tennessee Extension Publication W 343.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Jagadamma, S., Essington, M.E., Xu, S., Yin, X. 2019. Total and Active Soil Organic Carbon from Long-term Agricultural Management Practices in West Tennessee. Agricultural & Environmental Letters, 4(1).180062
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Jagadamma, S., Essington, M.E., Xu, S., Yin, X., Long-term Impacts of Cropland Management on Depth Distribution of Soil Organic Carbon in West Tennessee. ASA Southern Regional Branch Annual Meeting, Birmingham, AL, February 3-5, 2019.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Menefee, D., N. Rajan, and S. Cui. 2019. Growth stage specific evapotranspiration measurements using eddy covariance compared to DSSAT evapotranspiration simulation for dryland corn and cotton in Southern-central Texas. ASA-CSSA-SSSA, San Antonio, TX, Nov. 10-13.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Menefee, D., N. Rajan, S. Cui, S. Shafian. 2019. Estimation of gross primary for cotton and corn using high resolution planetscope satellite data. ASA-CSSA-SSSA, San Antonio, TX, Nov. 10-13.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Cui, S. 2019. Carbon and water vapor flux dynamics of major forage and row-crop systems in the Southern U.S. under changing climate conditions. Invited Presentation at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture Climate Change Adaptation: Cover Crop and Irrigation Field Day, March 29, Spring Hill, TN (invited presentation).

Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20

Outputs
Target Audience: For the current reporting period, several undergraduate students have completed field data collection at MTSU Experiential Farm Laboratory and at the UTK Middle Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center (MTREC) in Spring Hill, TN. The project management team has been working closely with a Master's Degree Student fully supported by this project and a postdoctoral research associate partially supported by this project. The onset of COVID-19 has greatly affected the information dissemination to the general public and the scientific community. However, several virtual conferences as well as Extension events have been organized by professional societies and the institutional network to ensure the broader outreach of the information delivery. For the 2019 semester, students from two classes (PLSO 3330-Introduciton to Field Crop Production and PLSO 4310-Forage Crops) had visited the research plots. As the main instructor for these course, Dr. Cui has continued covering concepts, policies, and practice guidelines associated with organic/transitional forage production and cropping system design. The UTK group led by Dr. Nave has continued collecting forage biomass and nutritive value data from the small-plot forage cropping system study at the MTREC in Spring Hill, TN. The main targeting audience included undergraduate and graduate students, research faculty, scientist, extension county agents and forage/beef cattle producers in the state.Our soil health team leader, Dr. Jagadamma has continued her work centering the soil health component affected under both conventional and transitional approaches at both research locations (MTSU and UTK sites). In addition to supervising a postdoctoral research associate with expertise in soil science and soil physicochemical property analysis, Dr. Jagadamma also supervised several undergraduate students in the past year. For the Extension component of this project led by Dr. Griffith, the target audience during this reporting period started out with the traditional organic livestock and forage producers and those producers who were considering transitioning to organic livestock and forage production. However, the direction was quickly changed with the onset of COVID-19. As the impacts of COVID-19 spread, cattle began to back up in traditional marketing channels due to a slowdown in harvest. As harvest slowed down so did meat production which resulted in less meat product being available at grocery stores. This put consumers on the hunt for meat and much of that came back to the farm level. Thus, many meat consumers are looking for meat products directly off the farm which in turn means a change in production practices for livestock producers. The primary changes and challenges were keeping animals on the farm longer as well as feeding those animals. Many producers and consumers were looking for a grass-based product and this included organically produced product. A producer cannot convert to organically pastured livestock as quickly as the demand surfaced. Thus, the questions became more about high-yielding and high-quality forages to grow livestock on to meet consumers' demand. This particular instance may result in more producers transitioning pastures to organic production in the coming years. Changes/Problems:We will present the field data on the April-November window rather than year-round data (in order for month-by-month comparisons, and verisimilitude of use in the field). Additionally, our team will produce herbarium specimens of the weed species present to evaluate weed shifts, and quantify the weed legume presence in terms of N contribution/credits. Finally, the project team has already completed the non-cost extension for another year to allow more preparation time for both Dr. Xu and Mr. Kubesch to publish the collected results in peer-reviewed journals. Most team members do not anticipate major changes or problems during this reporting period. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?At MTSU, more than 40 undergraduate agricultural students in the MTSU School of Agriculture have taken classes incorporated with field demonstration of transitional forage production as well as advanced instrumentation usage in monitoring greenhouse gas emission in agricultural fields. Our field-trip based activities have been largely suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For Dr. Nave's group, this project has allowed investigators to train and develop various professionals, including research associate staff (Mr. David Plunk), undergraduate international students interns, and M.S. student (Mr. Kubesch), who is currently responsible for conducting the research, collecting samples and conducting field work, statistical analyses and thesis writing. In Dr. Jagadamma's team, Dr. Sutie Xu, a postdoc partially supported by this funding, has been trained to conduct field and lab-based research. She has also been provided with opportunities to gain analytical skills, mentor undergraduate and graduate students, publish findings, and develop ideas for grant proposals. An undergraduate student (Michael Russell), partially supported by this funding, has been trained by Sutie Xu and Sindhu Jagadamma on soil sampling and laboratory soil analysis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?At the 2019 University of Tennessee Fall Forage Field Day, Dr. Nave served as a member of the MTREC delegation and presented the results from the field component to various educators, Extension agents, faculty members, and students mainly from the UTK. She also delivered a similar presentation at the University of Tennessee Dairy Research and Education Center at Lewisburg, TN. For the Extension component, information concerning organic forage production economics has been presented at 12 individual meetings with 740 total participants. The organic forage economics program has been designed to educate producers about risk management in forage production, reducing input costs, and the cost of low quality forage. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?For the next reporting period, we plan to have successfully completed two full years of research data at MTREC fully analyzed and compiled. We aim to complete M.S. student's thesis, present final findings of the project in professional scientific meetings and extension meetings. Also, we plan to have submitted two or three manuscripts for peer-reviewed scientific journals. Dr. Jagadamma's lab will finish the last set of soil health measurements. We will also complete the laboratory microcosm experiment by analyzing soil enzyme activities. By the end of the next reporting period (August 2021), we will publish two manuscripts as lead authors from this project. From an Extension and outreach standpoint, the plan is to continue working with the physical scientists to collect production data and use that data for economic analysis that can then lead to more organic forage program outreach efforts as well as lead to scientific journal publications. The analyzing of data from an economic perspective is in process as Dr. Griffith continue to work with the graduate student to fulfill his requirements for a Masters' degree.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Conduct field-based research and on-farm demonstrations in a partnership between stakeholders and scientists for better understanding of the influence of rotational and intercropping on greenhouse gas emission, crop yield, forage nutritive value, and soil health in integrated transitioning forage systems. At MTSU, we have completed collecting forage biomass, nutritive data, and botanical composition data. Our team is currently synthesizing all field data and budgetary records and preparing manuscripts that will be submitted to scientific journals. Dr. Nave's group at MTREC has continued for another year of data collection. Main accomplishments consisted of the following: 1) continued annual rotation system as previously planned; 2) constructed establishment and maintenance budget skeletons on a treatment basis using existing budgets and previous work on organic fertilizer pricing; 3) produced herbarium specimens (deposited at Austin Peay) and weed presence data with a final weed survey, 4) comparison of the project to UT variety trials and published work on the same farm under comparable management conditions to develop a yield penalty for the organic harvest, and 5) plant alfalfa which succeeded in the bermudagrass-alfalfa plots. Soil health response to different forage species were investigated in Dr. Jagadamma's laboratory. Soil samples from 0 to 30 cm depth were collected twice a year to analyze soil health determining properties such as soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, mineral nitrogen, pH, and other soil nutrients. Results showed that perennial mixtures, especially the combination of warm-season grass and cool season legume, have the greatest potential to improve soil health in organic transitioning systems. Soil moisture, organic carbon, microbial biomass carbon, and mineral nitrogen were higher under bermudagrass + alfalfa treatment than under bermudagrass monocultures and other forage species. We also conducted a laboratory microcosm experiment to understand the climate resiliency of soils under organic management. Preliminary results show that microbial biomass carbon and soil respiration were greater under organic farming compared to conventional farming across temperature treatments. Quantify and characterize how transitioning into organic forage management practices can affect the water, greenhouse gas, and energy fluxes and dynamics in predominant forage production agroecosystems of the fescue belt region. Both eddy-covariance systems (one on a conventional forage ecosystem, another on a certified system) have being functioning properly and are continuously logging water, greenhouse gas, and energy fluxes data. We are in the process of performing data QA/QC procedures, including gap-filling data, partitioning the net ecosystem exchange into both gross primary production and soil respiration components to fully investigate the differences in ecosystem behaviors. Developoptimalmanagementpractices thatoptimizebothagronomic/economic profitability andecosystemfunctionin transitioning forage production systems. Our preliminary results indicated that annual forage systems could provide the greatest yield but with very limited contribution to the overall soil carbon pool and extremely poor economic return, mainly due to the high seed cost (particularly certified seeds) and large labor input (tillage, planting, harvesting, etc.). Perennial systems, particularly perennial warm-season grass-legume bicultures indicated the optimal economic return, soil carbon enhancement, and biomass yield. Extra caution was needed on the legume species selection and how to maintain nutritive value during the end of the growing season. Develop aneducational and outreach paradigm for efficient transfer of project findings to stakeholders and public individuals. Organize training and extension efforts on the farming strategies, certification processes, and economic decision-making while transitioning to organic forage production systems. The focus has transitioned to using research data to construct transition and maintenance budgets for organic forage production. In doing this, this information will be available to producers to help them better understand the risks, challenges, and costs of transitioning to organic forage production. At the same time, we are calculating the cost of production on a forage yield and nutritive basis which will provide a pure estimate of costs to forage and livestock production. We continue to work with individual producers who are establishing or reestablishing forages and how to reduce costs throughout the life of the forage stand.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Griffith A.P. Beef and Forage Production Resources.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Griffith, A.P. 2020. Fescue Hay in May and Pasture Thoughts. Tennessee Cattle Business, May.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Griffith, A.P. 2019. Drought: D�j� vu All Over Again. Tennessee Cattle Business, November.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Xu, S., Jagadamma, S., Oakes, R.N., and Cui, S. 2020. Soil Health Influenced by Forage Composition in Organic Systems. ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting. Virtual meeting. November 9-11, 2020
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Xu, S., Jagadamma, S., and Cui, S. 2020. Temperature and Wet/Dry Cycles Effects on Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics under Organic Forage Farming. ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting. Virtual meeting. November 9-11, 2020
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Kubesch, J., R.L. Nave, G.E. Bates, S. Cui, and D.M. Butler. 2019. Forage species selection for transitional organic production in Middle Tennessee. ASA-CSSA-SSSA, San Antonio, TX, Nov. 10-13.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Cui, S. 2019. Modeling CO2 and H2O from a cool-season dominated native prairie in the climate transition zone of the U.S. ASA-CSSA-SSSA, San Antonio, TX, Nov. 10-13.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Kubesch, J. 2020. Optimal forage species selection for southeastern transitional or low-input production. AFGC, Greenville, SC, Jan. 5-8.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Kubesch, J. 2019. Forage species selection for southeastern transitional or low-input production systems. UT Beef and Forage Center Research and Recommendation Meeting, Knoxville, TN. Dec. 17.

Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19

Outputs
Target Audience: During the second reporting period of this project, our major target audience was the research groups at both institutions. The project management team has recruited several undergraduate students to assist with field data collection and preliminary laboratory data processing/analysis. We have completed the organic certification processes working with the QCS Certification Services. Both the small forage cropping system plots and the large forage agroecosystem plots at MTSU have already been organically certified and will continued to be certified on a yearly basis. The small-plot field at UTK has been certified as organic transitional plots. At MTSU, students from two classes (ABAS 2210-Introduciton to Agricultural Engineering; and PLSO 4310-Forage Crops) had participated the field day tours at the research plots. During classroom teaching, we have covered concepts, policies, and practice guidelines associated with organic/transitional forage production nationwide. The forage cropping system team at UTK group led by Dr. Nave has continued collecting forage biomass and nutritive value data from the small-plot forage cropping system study at the UT Middle Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center in Spring Hill, TN. The main targeting audience included graduate and undergraduate students, extension agents and producers. Efforts included informal educational programs such as internships, workshops and extension activities.Our soil team leader, Dr. Jagadamma has continued her work centering the soil health component affected under both conventional and transitional approaches. The main target audiences include individuals, stake holder groups, market segments, or communities that are particularly interested in the benefits of transitional/organic forage management approaches on soil health. Dr. Jagadamma also recruited undergraduate student assistants that are racial and ethnic minorities and those who are socially, economically, or educationally disadvantaged. The primary target audience group for our Extension team led by Dr. Griffith includes forage and livestock producers that have already transitioned or are currently considering to establish economically sustainable organic forage systems in the the future. Particularly, through field visits with producers and personal interactions with the general public during the Extension events, Dr. Griffith has identified that consumers have provided greater demand for organically produced food items as well as other products. The organically grown food items that tend to be more readily available to consumers include fruits, vegetables, and food products with a short production horizon and a relatively short list of inputs. However, organic forages, beef cattle, and dairy products, which have a longer input production list, have gradually gained market share on the agricultural isle. It can be difficult to identify and establish all the necessary relationships with input suppliers for organically produced livestock products. A key component on that list involves forage which will compose the majority of a nutrition plan for cattle, sheep, and goats. Thus, the target audience of this project has been cattle, sheep, and goat producers who are producing animal products and meat protein for sale. Additionally, another audience has been forage producers who desire to market organically produced hay to organic livestock producers. An issue that some producers have faced is over producing for the organic market and then having to market the remaining production at commodity prices. This is not a major concern due to the small scale most are working from, but it could become one if production is increased. Changes/Problems:Most team members do not anticipate major changes or problems during this reporting period. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?At MTSU, a Plant and Soil Science major student Mr. Andrew Nevins is currently assisting in forage/soil sampling, plot maintenance, and collection of the eddy covariance flux-tower data. Around 55 undergraduate agricultural students in MTSU School of Agriculture have taken classes incorporated with field demonstration of transitional forage production as well as advanced instrumentation usage in monitoring greenhouse gas emission in agricultural fields. Additionally, Dr. Nate Phillips has organized several field trips hosted by local NRCS Soil Conservationists to teach students the concepts of cover cropping, organic farming, and soil health. Additionally, many project collaborators from NRCS have visited and guest-lectured in several courses offered by Drs. Cui and Phillips. At UTK, graduate student training involves conducting and assisting research activities related to forage quality analysis using NIR, forage phenotyping, as well as preliminary data summary and statistical analysis. Within Dr. Jagadamma's group, a postdoc (Sutie Xu), partially supported by this funding, has been trained in writing manuscripts and grant proposals, conducting field and lab experiments, and operating instruments such as TOC analyzer. She has been given opportunities to mentor undergraduate and graduate students, deliver guest lectures, attend conferences, and interact with organic producers. An undergraduate student (Michael Russell), partially supported by this funding, has been trained by Sutie Xu and Sindhu Jagadamma on soil sampling and laboratory soil analysis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During the second year of this project, information concerning organic forage production economics has been presented at 10 individual meetings with 452 total participants. The organic forage economics program has been designed to educate producers about risk management in forage production, reducing input costs, and the cost of low quality forage. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Both research group at MTSU and UTK will seek to continue monthly sampling as well as maintain fertility schedule. Mr. Kubesch (the M.S. student supported by this project) will complete his thesis draft in summer of 2020. Additionally, Dr. Renata together with Dr. Griffith will give numerous Extension presentation to distribute the findings from this research to various stakeholder groups in Tennessee. Jagadamma lab will continue conducting biannual soil health measurements. By the end of next reporting period (August 2020), we will have summarized the soil health changes and presented the results in an international conference and begin the process of writing a manuscript. We will also complete a laboratory microcosm experiment to understand the residue decomposition potential of organic and conventional soils under different climate change scenarios. Our research team is currently working on several scientific publications that should be submitted within the first quarter of 2020. Particularly, we have analyzed the Eddy Covariance-based flux tower data from those two large forage ecosystems before the organic certification was completed. The post-certification data have been recorded and will be compiled and compared with previous years' data. We will continue collecting high-intensity forage nutritive and biomass data across both institutions and will keep tracking soil health data. From an Extension and outreach standpoint, the plan is to continue working with the physical scientists to collect production data and use that data for economic analysis that can then lead to more organic forage program outreach efforts as well as lead to scientific journal publications. From an Extension and outreach standpoint, the plan is to continue working with the physical scientists to collect production data and use that data for economic analysis that can then lead to more organic forage program outreach efforts as well as lead to scientific journal publications.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Conduct field-based research and on-farm demonstrations in a partnership between stakeholders and scientists for better understanding of the influence of rotational and intercropping on greenhouse gas emission, crop yield, forage nutritive value, and soil health in integrated transitioning forage systems. Both research plots at MTSU has already been organically certified. We have continued collecting forage nutritive data, forage biomass data, soil and weed survey data. The first year's nutritive data has already been analyzed using the NIRS. Additionally, leveraging support from another USDA funded program and another MTSU internal grant program, Dr. Cui at MTSU has purchased an NIRS system in conjunction with the annual access of the NIRS Forage and Feed Testing Consortium's Prediction Equation Database. This will enable fast-and-easy testing of forage nutritive value following harvesting. Dr. Renata's group at UTK has been collecting monthly forage quality and quantity samples for evaluating forage mass, botanical composition, and nutritive value. Summer weed surveys were conducted in July of 2018 and 2019. Organic Boron fertilizer was applied to all alfalfa plots, and manure fertilizer was applied to tall fescue monoculture and bermudagrass plots according to soil testing in early March and April of 2019, respectively. Soil sampling was performed in October of 2018 and June of 2019. Pertaining to the first goal, Dr. Jagadamma's lab investigated soil health changes under different organic forage management. The team has been conducting soil sampling on biannual basis for the analysis of soil health parameters. Preliminary results showed that organic forage management improved soil health parameters. For example, soil pH, inorganic N, Ca, K, Mg, Na, and P were increased at the top 15 cm depth compared to conventional forage system. In addition, soil properties in the surface layer of organic systems were influenced by the forage species. However, soil properties below 15 cm depth were not greatly influenced by the management changes in 1.5 years. Quantify and characterize how transitioning into organic forage management practices can affect the water, greenhouse gas, and energy fluxes and dynamics in predominant forage production agroecosystems of the fescue belt region. Both eddy-covariance systems (one on a conventional forage ecosystem, another on a certified system) have being functioning properly and are continuously logging water, greenhouse gas, and energy fluxes data. A fully integrated solar-powered mobile trailer unit that could safely house the trace gas analyzer during in-situ measurement has already been fully assembled and deployed in the small-plot research field. The entire system is simultaneously quantifying soil greenhouse gas emission from 12 different plots. Developoptimalmanagementpractices thatoptimizebothagronomic/economic profitability andecosystemfunctionin transitioning forage production systems. The research team across both institutions is currently compiling research data from both locations in Middle Tennessee across both large and small plot systems that could be used for provide valuable managerial information for organic and transitioning producers. Develop aneducational and outreach paradigm for efficient transfer of project findings to stakeholders and public individuals. Organize training and extension efforts on the farming strategies, certification processes, and economic decision-making while transitioning to organic forage production systems. During this reporting period, Dr. Griffith has continued the information dissemination effort through various Outreach and Extension programming sponsored by the UTIA, but mainly continues through a program entitled Managing Forage Risk in the Mid-South. This program addresses many of the risks faced by forage producers and some strategies to reduce or eliminate those risks. Many of those strategies are more closely related to organic forage production than conventional forage production though the management strategies that can be adapted to either system. Another accomplishment has been working with a few producers on an individual basis to enhance organic forage production through grazing practices. These producers are not necessarily focusing on organic forage production but rather low cost forage production. In making this transition, they are now producing organic forage.

Publications

• Type: Book Chapters Status: Under Review Year Published: 2019 Citation: Xu, S*., Jagadamma, S., Oakes, R.N., Cui, S., Li, Z., Byers, E. 2019. Potential and Challenges of Growing Cover Crops in Organic Production Systems.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Jagadamma, S., Essington, M.E., Xu, S., Yin, X. 2019. Total and Active Soil Organic Carbon from Long-term Agricultural Management Practices in West Tennessee. Agricultural & Environmental Letters, 4(1).180062
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Griffith A.P. Top Money Eaters in Cow-Calf Production. Tennessee Forage and Grassland Conference, 2019
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Griffith A.P. Tennessee Master Small Ruminant: Forage Risk. Tennessee Master Small Ruminant Producer Program. 2019.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Griffith A.P. Tennessee Advanced Master Beef Producer: Marketing and Management, Forage Risk. 2019.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Griffith A.P. Economics of Hay of Different Quality. 2019.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Griffith A.P. Grass Fed Beef Operations: Economics and Considerations.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Griffith, A.P. Pasture, Rangeland and Forage Insurance as a Risk Management Tool. University of Tennessee Extension Publication W 343.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Jagadamma, S., Essington, M.E., Xu, S., Yin, X., Long-term Impacts of Cropland Management on Depth Distribution of Soil Organic Carbon in West Tennessee. ASA Southern Regional Branch Annual Meeting, Birmingham, AL, February 3-5, 2019.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Kubesch, J., R.L. Nave, G.E. Bates, S. Cui, D.M. Butler. 2019. Forage species selection for transitional organic production in Middle Tennessee. ASA-CSSA-SSSA, San Antonio, TX, Nov. 10-13.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Menefee, D., N. Rajan, and S. Cui. 2019. Growth stage specific evapotranspiration measurements using eddy covariance compared to DSSAT evapotranspiration simulation for dryland corn and cotton in Southern-central Texas. ASA-CSSA-SSSA, San Antonio, TX, Nov. 10-13.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Cui, S. 2019. Modeling CO2 and H2O from a cool-season dominated native prairie in the climate transition zone of the U.S. ASA-CSSA-SSSA, San Antonio, TX, Nov. 10-13.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Menefee, D., N. Rajan, S. Cui, S. Shafian. 2019. Estimation of gross primary for cotton and corn using high resolution planetscope satellite data. ASA-CSSA-SSSA, San Antonio, TX, Nov. 10-13.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Cui, S. 2019. Carbon and water vapor flux dynamics of major forage and row-crop systems in the Southern U.S. under changing climate conditions. Invited Presentation at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture Climate Change Adaptation: Cover Crop and Irrigation Field Day, March 29, Spring Hill, TN (invited presentation).

Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/18

Outputs
Target Audience:During the first reporting period of this project, our major target audience was the entire project research group across two institutions that was heavily involved in establishing the research plots and completing the transition/organic certification processes. Two small-plot organic/transitioning forage cropping system studies have already been established (one at MTSU, and the other at UTK). We have hired organic certifying agents, who will start the certification processes by the end of this summer. The project PD, Dr. Cui have completed several trips between MTSU and UTK, conducting project meetings, exchanging collaborative ideas, and updating each other on the progress made during the past year. Additionally, all project management team members from UTK, including Drs. Griffith, Jagadamma, and Nave; as well as the newly recruited graduate student have visited the research site at MTSU to provide updates and ensuring research/outreach goals from all subgroups are in line with the overall project aims. Particularly, during this course of the project period, the research team at MTSU led by Drs. Cui and Phillips has recruited an undergraduate research assistant Mr. Andrew Nevins, to assist in research plot preparation/establishment and sampling. In addition to our existing large-scale forage agroecosystem fields, an additional small-plot forage cropping system field has already been established, and is currently in the process of becoming certified. We have conducted field-day tours for more than 50 agricultural students in two classes (ABAS 2210-Introduciton to Agricultural Engineering; and PLSO 4310-Forage Crops) offered at the MTSU School of Agriculture during the 2017 Fall Semester. During these courses, we have taught students the concepts and practices associated with organic/transitional forage production as well as some of the regulation and policies established on the regional and national scales. The small-plot forage cropping system team at University of Tennessee group led by Dr. Nave has completed establishing the small-plot forage cropping system study at the UT Middle Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center in Spring Hill, TN. An M.S. graduate student, Mr. Jonathan Kubesch, has been successfully recruited on our project after the completion of his B.S. Degree from the Ohio State University. Our soil team leader, Dr. Jagadamma has hired a postdoctoral research associate Ms. Sutie Xu, she will be partially supported by this project and will be responsible for soil sample analysis. Additionally, several undergraduate students were also hired by our soil team for assisting in soil sample processing and preparation. The primary target audience group for our Extension team led by Dr. Griffith includes forage and livestock producers desiring to establish economically sustainable organic forage systems in the state of Tennessee. The majority of these producers rely heavily on grazing forages and mechanically harvested forage to feed cattle, sheep, goats, and equine through the year. Some livestock producers rely solely on forage without use of supplements. Thus, economically efficient forage production is imperative to be profitable on most livestock operations. Economically profitable forage production requires production cost management as well as marketing the forage to its highest value. Throughout the first year's interaction with livestock producers in the state, Dr. Griffith found that the majority of the conventional forage production relies heavily on chemical fertilizers and herbicides that can be expensive and fail to achieve desired results if not applied in a timely manner. Additionally, use of chemical fertilizers and herbicides can lead to mismanagement of land and forage resources resulting in reduced forage production in some cases. Thus, there are livestock producers in the state evaluating the use of more holistic livestock production by establishing an organic system that targets soil health, forage production, and ultimately the production of organically produced meat and animal products. Changes/Problems:Most team members do not anticipate major changes or problems during this first reporting period. However, the forage research team at both institutions encountered poor germination of bermudagrass this year. We attributed this to the seed quality issue as finding high-quality non-treated or organically certified forage seeds could be challenging. We have re-planted all bermudagrass plots with new seeds, which have provided satisfactory results. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?At MTSU, two undergraduate students had directly involved in research activities supported by this project. Mr. Austin Brennstuhl, a Plant and Soil Science graduate at MTSU was previously hired as a student assistant and had helped preparing the small-plot forage fields at the MTSU Experiential Learning and Education Farm. Mr. Andrew Nevins is currently assisting in forage/soil sampling, plot maintenance, and collection of the eddy covariance flux-tower data. Around 60 undergraduate agricultural students in MTSU School of Agriculture have taken classes incorporated with field demonstration of transitional forage production as well as advanced instrumentation usage in monitoring greenhouse gas emission in agricultural fields. Throughout the first reporting period, the research team at MTSU has hosted several visits from local producers and NRCS personnel. At UTK, graduate student training involves conducting and assisting research activities related to forage quality analysis using NIR, forage phenotyping, as well as preliminary data summary and statistical analysis. Meanwhile, a postdoctoral research associate was recruited who will receive advanced training on soil organic matter biogeochemistry, nutrient cycling, and soil microbial ecology under the direct supervision of Dr. Jagadamma. Additionally, an undergraduate student was also trained on soil sample processing and basic analysis. Altogether, this multi-faced collaborative project between MTSU, a nonland-grant institution, and UTK, a flagship landgrant institution provides enormous professional development opportunities for all the involved junior faculty members across both institutions. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During the first year of this project, information concerning organic forage production economics has been presented by Dr. Griffith at 14 individual meetings with 764 total participants at several Extension/outreach events organized by the University of Tennessee Extension Framework. This specific topic is one of several topics of a program designed to educate producers about risk management in forage production. Although, the research results summary and synthesis is still at its infancy stage, our research team has communicated closely with several USDA-NRCS personnel in the state. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The forage research team will continue collecting forage quality/quantify data at both small-plot research sites. We will start NIR spectroscopy-based forage quality analysis very soon. Meanwhile, we will couple the eddy covariance flux tower measurement with the portable trace gas analyzer data to provide the full spectrum of soil and ecosystem-based greenhouse gas emission signatures across both conventional and transitional forage fields. Small-plot greenhouse gas emission will be measured using the fully integrated self-powering mobile trailer unit at MTSU. Soil chamber-based greenhouse gas measurements will be conducted at the UT Middle Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center. Soil sampling and analysis will be continued by our soil research group. We will design and conduct a lab-scale experiment to understand how different forage inputs interact mechanistically with soil health. From an Extension and outreach standpoint, the plan is to continue working with the physical scientists to collect production data and use that data for economic analysis that can then lead to more organic forage program outreach efforts as well as lead to scientific journal publications.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Conduct field-based research and on-farm demonstrations in a partnership between stakeholders and scientists for better understanding of the influence of rotational and intercropping on greenhouse gas emission, crop yield, forage nutritive value, and soil health in integrated transitioning forage systems. Research team from both Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) and University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK) have completed establishing two sites of small-plot forage cropping system fields. Meanwhile, both fields are currently in the phase of transitioning to certified organic plots. Altogether, we have established two randomized complete block designs with four blocks, at two different locations; evaluating one annual rotational system consisting of cool-season grass-legume mixtures (winter wheat-field pea double cropping) followed by warm-season (sudex-cow pea double cropping), one cool-season perennial grass monoculture (tall fescue), one warm-season perennial grass monoculture (bermudagrass), and five perennial grass-legume mixtures (tall fescue with alfalfa, bermudagrass with alfalfa, tall fescue with white clover, old world bluestem with sainfoin, and orchardgrass with alfalfa). We expect this integration of research design will provide a broad spectrum of results/outcomes from a diverse group of forage systems. Each treatment design could offer unique advantage and address particular challenge in an integrated forage-livestock system in the middle Tennessee region. Baseline soil samples were collected and analyzed before the start of the field experiments at both Spring Hill and Lascassas locations in Oct 2017. We will conduct soil analysis twice/year for three years. The first sampling of year 1 was conducted in May 2018 and the soil analysis is on-going. Additionally, forage samples have been collected monthly and will be sent for quality analysis. Quantify and characterize how transitioning into organic forage management practices can affect the water, greenhouse gas, and energy fluxes and dynamics in predominant forage production agroecosystems of the fescue belt region. The research team at MTSU has completed the acquisition of the portable trace gas analyzer that will be used for quantifying greenhouse gas emission from both the small-plot components and the large-scale forage production fields. Dr. Cui has already completed the training processes and is currently testing and validating the equipment. Additionally, our research group at MTSU is also working on assembling an integrated self-powering mobile trailer unit that could safely house the trace gas analyzer during measurement in situ meanwhile continue supplying power to the analyzer unit using solar power. Our two eddy covariance flux-tower measuring units have been fully established, one in an organic-transitioning forage field, and the other in a conventionally managed forage field. Water, CO2, and energy flux/dynamics data have been contiguously computed, logged, and analyzed by the project management team. Developoptimalmanagementpractices thatoptimizebothagronomic/economic profitability andecosystemfunctionin transitioning forage production systems. Nothing to report during the first reporting period. Develop aneducational and outreach paradigm for efficient transfer of project findings to stakeholders and public individuals. Organize training and extension efforts on the farming strategies, certification processes, and economic decision-making while transitioning to organic forage production systems. Initial outreach and Extension programming has begun through a program entitled Managing Forage Risk in the Mid-South led by Dr. Griffith. This program addresses many of the risks faced by forage producers and some strategies to reduce or eliminate those risks. Many of those strategies are more closely related to organic forage production than conventional forage production though the management strategies can be adapted to either system.

Publications