Presentation Title
A New Cover Crop for Vermont Farmers: The Annual Lupin
Abstract
Vermont's intense seasonality with it's short and highly variable growing season can make it increasingly difficult for farmer's to implement cover crops. Cover cropping is an important practice for improving soil health, capacity to hold nutrients and reduce run-off of fertilizers into rivers, streams, and lakes. Legumes with their nitrogen-fixing capacity and taproot structure are increasingly important as farmers look to reduce synthetic fertilizer inputs and soil compaction that both contribute to poorly sustained yields and increased environmental and fertilizer costs. The lupin species, Lupinius augustifolius or narrowleaf blue lupin, evaluated in this field trial is an annual variety that has been used extensively for green manure and cover cropping practices. It's cold-hardiness and special taproot system, excellence at mining phosphorous, and fixing nitrogen offers many potential uses in Vermont's agriculture both as a substitute for the less cold-tolerant soybean in maize systems and as a new source of highly digestible protein feed for dairy and livestock systems. Field trials were run to evaluate the potential of lupins as a cover crop here in Vermont by measuring yields and effect on nutrient status and soil properties across five varieties of narrowleaf lupin.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Eric Bishop Von Wettberg
Secondary Mentor Name
Deborah Neher
Graduate Student Mentors
Eddie Marques
Faculty/Staff Collaborators
Edward Marques (Graduate Student Mentor), Dr. Deborah Neher (Reviewer), Dr. Terrence Bradshaw (Reviewer), Andi Kuhr (M.S. Mentor)
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Program/Major
Plant and Soil Science
Primary Research Category
Biological Sciences
Secondary Research Category
Engineering & Physical Sciences
Tertiary Research Category
Food & Environment Studies
A New Cover Crop for Vermont Farmers: The Annual Lupin
Vermont's intense seasonality with it's short and highly variable growing season can make it increasingly difficult for farmer's to implement cover crops. Cover cropping is an important practice for improving soil health, capacity to hold nutrients and reduce run-off of fertilizers into rivers, streams, and lakes. Legumes with their nitrogen-fixing capacity and taproot structure are increasingly important as farmers look to reduce synthetic fertilizer inputs and soil compaction that both contribute to poorly sustained yields and increased environmental and fertilizer costs. The lupin species, Lupinius augustifolius or narrowleaf blue lupin, evaluated in this field trial is an annual variety that has been used extensively for green manure and cover cropping practices. It's cold-hardiness and special taproot system, excellence at mining phosphorous, and fixing nitrogen offers many potential uses in Vermont's agriculture both as a substitute for the less cold-tolerant soybean in maize systems and as a new source of highly digestible protein feed for dairy and livestock systems. Field trials were run to evaluate the potential of lupins as a cover crop here in Vermont by measuring yields and effect on nutrient status and soil properties across five varieties of narrowleaf lupin.