By Jonathan Eisenthal
Melissa Wilson came to the University of Minnesota to focus on manure application as an assistant professor at the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. One of her research focuses since arriving has been the potential of pairing up manure application with another soil health-promoting practice: cover crops.
Wilson is now in the second year of a research project to assess their benefit.
“The aim of the project is seeing if we can integrate liquid manure and cover crops to hold onto nutrients longer and to improve soil health,” Wilson said.
She is looking at the best timing of planting the cover crop, how the timing of liquid manure application impacts the system and whether to use oats or winter rye—two of the most popular choices for cover crops in Minnesota. She is pursuing these questions with support from the Minnesota Corn Innovation Grant Program, along with support from the Natural Resource Conservation Service and the University of Minnesota Extension.
“Fall is the time when most manure is applied in Minnesota,” Wilson said. “So, another question is, do cover crops give the farmer added flexibility?”
Such flexibility would be much welcomed in Minnesota, where in recent years farm operators have had an average of seven days that were fit to complete all their field work.
The research is comprehensive, both geographically and agronomically, to ensure that it will be useful to farmers across Minnesota—whoever has access to manure and wants to incorporate cover crops. Wilson has developed the project at locations in Morris, Nicollet, Waseca and Trimont, consisting of two scientific plots and two on-farm plots. Across these locations, Wilson is testing four different treatments: manure and cover crops, cover crops only, manure only, and conventionally cultivated ground with neither manure nor cover crops added.
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