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Research Project:
Improving Soil, Water, and Nutrient Management in Cropping and Integrated Crop-Livestock Systems
Location:
Soil and Water Management Research
Project Number: 6209-13000-009-00
Project Type:
Appropriated
Start Date: May 06, 2001
End Date: May 05, 2006
Objective:
1)Develop and evaluate management strategies, cropping systems, and tillage systems that maximize infiltration, use stored soil water efficiently, and reduce sorghum production risks under irrigated and dryland conditions. 2)Develop sustainable crop and integrated crop-livestock production systems that sustain soil and water quality and increase production intensity and profitability; and 3)Develop management practices and assess their impact on plant nutrient use, production, and field losses of nutrients.
Approach:
The influence of summer crop-fallow rotations, wheat-fallow, annual summer crop, or annual wheat on soil quality, sustained crop yield, and water conservation will be evaluated using replicated field studies and off-site sampling. Crop growth models will be validated and used to predict crop performance and production risks for various practices using long term (1939-present) weather records. The impact of tillage practices, rotational sequences, and livestock grazing on soil physical properties that influence infiltration and soil water availability will be assessed. Rainfall simulators, tension infiltrometers, soil evaporation experiments, and other soil physical measurements will be used to document differences in soil hydraulic properties induced by management. Long-term plant and soil fertility responses of shortgrass range and CRP grasslands to beef cattle feedlot manure will be measured in replicated field plots. Rainfall simulators and gauged basins (terraces) will be used to evaluate the influence of soil P status on surface P transport.
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