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ARS Home Midwest Area Madison, Wisconsin U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center Dairy Forage Research Research





- Riday, Heathcliffe
- Food Animal Production (101)
- Grass, Forage, and Rangeland Agroecosystems (215)

Research Project: **Location:
                            Dairy Forage Research** Project Number: 5090-21500-002-019-R
                        
                        Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement Start Date: Oct 15, 2021
                        
                        End Date: Aug 31, 2024 **Objective:**
                        
                        1. Improve cover crop legume performance through germplasm screening.

2. Disseminate knowledge gained from on-farm and on-station cover crop germplasm screenings and management experiments. **Approach:**
                        
                        For Objective 1:
a. Create a legume cover crop germplasm screening program that evaluates hairy vetch, crimson clover, red clover, and Austrian winter pea for select agronomic traits of interest across a latitudinal gradient.  Additional work will be done with improving cereal rye genetics, including insect damage to seed, GXE dynamics on seed production, and advanced line testing. 
b. Build a network of farmers who will aid in variety selection through participatory germplasm screening.
c. Identify select cover crop accessions for seed increases and future improvement.
d. Contract buying groups or germplasm curators to conduct cover crop seed grow-outs.
e. Work with seed companies on releasing new cultivars.

For Objective 2: 
Engage farmers and agricultural professionals through on- farm field days, regional workshops, webinars, and a website.


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