Henry A. Wallace Chair for Sustainable Agriculture

Projects

Complete Publication Listing (PDF 35 KB)

Perennializing the Landscape

Prior to European settlement, Iowa was covered with perennial grasses, shrubs, and trees. Conversion of most of this perennial cover to two annual crops, corn and soybean, has had strong impacts on soil erosion, water quality, and wildlife. An important research question is whether strategic placement of small amounts of perennial vegetation can provide large improvements in soil and water quality and wildlife conservation. Vegetation types being investigated include filter strips, riparian buffers, biofuel crops, and hayfields.

See Summaries and Publications for this Project Area

Diversified Cropping Systems

Extending the conventional corn-soybean rotation with small grains and forages has the potential to reduce requirements for purchased inputs and petrochemical energy. Systems experiments, such as the one we are conducting at the ISU Marsden Farm, are an important means of comparing the performance of conventional and diversified, low-external-input (LEI) cropping systems.

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Sustainable Biofuels

Producing crops for conversion to liquid fuels and other industrial chemicals may offer important economic opportunities for Iowans. However, heavy reliance on annual crops such as corn and removal of large quantities of biomass also create challenges for protecting soil and water resources. Our research targets the development of new cropping systems for year-round cover and nutrient recycling, as a means of increasing production efficiency while protecting environmental quality.

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Soil Amendments from Livestock Production Systems

Integration of crop and livestock production systems offers important opportunities for using manure and compost as soil amendments. Our research has focused on how these materials can best be managed to support crop production.

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Weed Ecology and Management

Ecology forms the basis of strategies for managing weeds effectively with less reliance on herbicides and cultivation. Investigations by my group have focused on understanding how crop rotations, cover crops, intercrops, compost and manure amendments, and insect and rodent seed predators affect crop-weed interactions and weed population dynamics. Much of this approach toward studying the crop-soil-weed interface is described in Ecological Management of Agricultural Weeds, which is authored by Matt Liebman, Charles Mohler, and Charles Staver.

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Research Group

Matt Liebman, Professor, Agronomy
Carol Williams, Postdoctoral Research Associate
David Sundberg, Agronomy Specialist
Michael Cruse, Graduate Student
Robin Gomez, Graduate Student
Andrew Heggenstaller, Graduate Student
Meghann Jarchow, Graduate Student

"Wise land use is simply an adaptation of nature's conservation and flood control methods to the conditions of advanced cultivation."
--H. A. Wallace