Alternative Biomass Production Study for Resilient Economic Agricultural Practices in Morris, Minnesota
The Tillage Study was established in 1997 to assess the effect of a variety of tillage intensities on soil C. The initial eight treatments included no-tillage, moldboard + disk tillage, chisel tillage, and fall and spring residue management, with or without strip-tillage and strip-tillage + subsoiling (Archer and Reicosky, 2009). In 2004, treatments were reduced to no-tillage, moldboard tillage, and fall and spring residue management without strip-tillage, but all had an early or late planting date. The last comprehensive set of soil samples were collected in 2006. In 2008, the strip-tilled subset of the Tillage Study plots were repurposed for the Alternative Biomass Production Systems study, which was designed to explore alternative strategies to support bioenergy including planting of cellulosic feedstock. The Alternative Biomass Production plots included perennials in an extended 6-year rotation, winter cereal rye cover crops in a corn-soybean rotation, and an alternative Sorghum-Sudan grass hybrid forage system, all of which have and will continue to be monitored for agronomic and soil properties.