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MSU studies what could become crop production norms

Researchers are comparing aspirational crop management systems to business as usual.

Tayler Ulbrich is the Associate Director for Stakeholder Engagement with the Long-Term Agroecosystem Project.

“All of the questions and the research we’re doing is informed not just by scientists but also community partners, external stakeholders, including agricultural advisors, farmers, and they’re guiding both the experiment and the questions,” she explains.

She tells Brownfield the site is one 18 in a USDA network studying the long-term economic and environmental tradeoffs in production agriculture.

“After only three years, we’re seeing changes to the soil structure,” she shares. “We’re seeing changes to just how the crops look, With the science we’re trying to then identify how quickly can we measure that and how quickly does that then turn around and benefit the farmer?”

The project in Michigan is comparing a Business-As-Usual production system with practices based on farmer surveys that are in place today in a corn and soybean rotation to a no-tilled, five-crop rotation using cover crops, precision nutrient applications and layered conservation practices.

Brownfield interviewed Ulbrich during the Long-Term Agroecosystem Annual Field Day in Hickory Corners.