Changes in Soil Properties From Grazed Winter Cover Crops.

Integrated crop-livestock systems offer opportunities to sustain soil productivity, reduce environmental degradation and increase profitability of the whole system; however, information on integrating livestock grazing with crop production in the US Corn Belt is limited (Sulc and Tracy, 2007). Therefore, the objective of this project is to study changes in soil carbon and soil physical properties in an integrated crop-livestock system under no-tillage management at the Waterman Dairy Farm. Three winter cover crop treatments treatments [annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum L.); rye (Secale cereale L.) + oat (Avena sativa L.) were established in early September after harvest of a corn silage crop in four replicates of a RCB design. The cover crops were strip grazed by heifers in late autumn and early spring. The mixture of rye + oats had greater forage yield, root yield, number of grazing days and, consequently greater soil penetration resistance, compared to ryegrass and the no cover crop control. Although both grazing treatments showed higher compaction than the ungrazed control, there were no significant differences in corn silage yield among winter cover crop treatments. The ryegrass cover crop treatment had higher particulate organic carbon than rye+oat and control. The first year data from this project shows that the adoption of no-till crop-livestock integration in the Midwest USA has the potential to provide additional livestock grazing days without detrimental effects on subsequent crop productivity.