Photo provided by Illinois Soybean Association

This project is quantifying the benefits of adopting conservation management practices at the field level. This includes how various conservation practices impact crop productivity, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, soil carbon sequestration and nitrogen (N) leaching/water quality across the various soybean regions in Illinois. Project output will include reports farmers can use to inform their management decisions and help prepare them to take advantage of government conservation programs and/or industry ecosystem markets, like carbon credit programs.

Read below for a project update provided by Dr. Kaiyu Guan.

“During the fall, we updated figures and results for the site-level crop rotation work, refining our analysis. We also completed regional-scale simulations constrained by satellite-derived GPP and crop yield data, finalizing the regional modeling efforts. Additionally, we initiated farmer engagement, meeting several farmers and collecting field-level information to support our study.

Our regional simulations confirmed alignment with site-level studies, showing that crop rotations, particularly soybean-corn (S-C), generally result in higher corn yields compared to continuous-corn (C-C). However, the yield benefit of S-C rotations diminishes during colder pre-growing seasons, which likely affects nitrogen mineralization and uptake processes. These findings validate the robustness of our modeling framework and highlight the environmental and climatic factors influencing yield outcomes.”

Farmers interested in participating in this research should fill out this form. To learn more about this checkoff funded project, visit the Field Advisor Research Hub here.