Investigating Winter Cover Crop Effects on Soil Health in Sloping Cropland

Investigating winter cover crop effects on soil health in sloping cropland Hanna Poffenbarger, Ole Wendroth, and Montse Salmeron Cover crop adoption is growing most rapidly on highly erodible sloping terrain. However, our understanding of the soil health benefits of cover crops come mainly from studies in flat research plots. These existing datasets likely underestimate the soil health benefits of cover crops, which may increase yields and build organic matter more on sloping land than flat land. The objective of this study is to determine the effects of cereal rye and mixed cereal rye-crimson clover cover crops on soil organic matter and other soil health indicators at three different landscape positions. We will collect soil from an existing cover crop x landscape position study to evaluate treatment effects on potentially mineralizable N, soil respiration, surface soil aggregation, and soil organic carbon and nitroge. These results will demonstrate the impact of cover crops in rolling terrain, which is more characteristic of cropland in Kentucky than flat land.