Search

Can corn benefit from social distancing?

April 13, 2021

Alison Robertson, plant pathology and microbiology, discusses findings from INRC-supported research on potential benefits of spacing cereal rye cover crop plantings from corn crop seedings in “Corn and Soybean Digest.”   

Harvested winter rye energy cover crop: multiple benefits for North Central US

August 15, 2023

A publication in Bioenergy Research Letters by INRC Director Matt Helmers and others, reports findings of a model-based investigation on the potential benefits of growing winter rye as a cover crop as part of corn-soybean rotations in the North-Central Region of the U.S. They concluded that harvesting fertilized rye CCs before soybean planting in this area could reduce nitrogen loads to the Gulf of Mexico by 27% relative to no cover crops, while providing an estimated 18 million Mg yr−1 of biomass-equivalent to 0.21 EJ yr−1 of biogas energy content (3.5 times the 2022 US cellulosic biofuel production).