“Improving sustainability of beef production by utilizing legumes in summer cover crops to reduce grazing systems nitrogen emissions”

Funded by USDA-NIFA-AFRI & Led by Dr. Andrew Foote

This project aims to improve environmental sustainability in cattle production systems by determining the impact of incorporating summer legume cover crops in wheat pastures on nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. Legume cover crops are a common rotation crop that aid in nitrogen sequestration and denitrification and have been found to provide the proper nitrogen required for grass species, such as wheat, to grow. By replacing the commonly used nitrogen fertilizers with legume cover crops, we hope to determine if this practice would lower emissions without compromising crop profitability for the cattle production system. We are working to answer this question with a combination of modeling and field approaches.