The hidden land use cost of upscaling cover crops

Cover cropping is considered a cornerstone practice in sustainable agriculture; however, little attention has been paid to the cover crop production supply chain. In this Perspective, we estimate land use requirements to supply the United States maize production area with cover crop seed, finding th...

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Main Authors: Runck, Bryan C., Khoury, Colin K., Ewing, Patrick M., Kantar, Michael B.
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Springer 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/108495
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author Runck, Bryan C.
Khoury, Colin K.
Ewing, Patrick M.
Kantar, Michael B.
author_browse Ewing, Patrick M.
Kantar, Michael B.
Khoury, Colin K.
Runck, Bryan C.
author_facet Runck, Bryan C.
Khoury, Colin K.
Ewing, Patrick M.
Kantar, Michael B.
author_sort Runck, Bryan C.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Cover cropping is considered a cornerstone practice in sustainable agriculture; however, little attention has been paid to the cover crop production supply chain. In this Perspective, we estimate land use requirements to supply the United States maize production area with cover crop seed, finding that across 18 cover crops, on average 3.8% (median 2.0%) of current production area would be required, with the popular cover crops rye and hairy vetch requiring as much as 4.5% and 11.9%, respectively. The latter land requirement is comparable to the annual amount of maize grain lost to disease in the U.S. We highlight avenues for reducing these high land use costs.
format Journal Article
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language Inglés
publishDate 2020
publishDateRange 2020
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spelling CGSpace1084952025-11-11T17:38:39Z The hidden land use cost of upscaling cover crops Runck, Bryan C. Khoury, Colin K. Ewing, Patrick M. Kantar, Michael B. land use utilización de la tierra production producción crops cultivos Cover cropping is considered a cornerstone practice in sustainable agriculture; however, little attention has been paid to the cover crop production supply chain. In this Perspective, we estimate land use requirements to supply the United States maize production area with cover crop seed, finding that across 18 cover crops, on average 3.8% (median 2.0%) of current production area would be required, with the popular cover crops rye and hairy vetch requiring as much as 4.5% and 11.9%, respectively. The latter land requirement is comparable to the annual amount of maize grain lost to disease in the U.S. We highlight avenues for reducing these high land use costs. 2020-06 2020-06-17T01:33:26Z 2020-06-17T01:33:26Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/108495 en Open Access application/pdf Springer Runck, B.C.; Khoury, C.K.; Ewing, P.M.; Kantar, M. (2020) The hidden land use cost of upscaling cover crops. Communications Biology 3:300 4 p. ISSN: 2399-3642
spellingShingle land use
utilización de la tierra
production
producción
crops
cultivos
Runck, Bryan C.
Khoury, Colin K.
Ewing, Patrick M.
Kantar, Michael B.
The hidden land use cost of upscaling cover crops
title The hidden land use cost of upscaling cover crops
title_full The hidden land use cost of upscaling cover crops
title_fullStr The hidden land use cost of upscaling cover crops
title_full_unstemmed The hidden land use cost of upscaling cover crops
title_short The hidden land use cost of upscaling cover crops
title_sort hidden land use cost of upscaling cover crops
topic land use
utilización de la tierra
production
producción
crops
cultivos
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/108495
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