Water Quality Improvement and Agroforestry Practices

This item was presentation # 17 at the April 2007 Water Quality Short Course. More information on the 2007 Water Quality Short Course, including an agenda and links to to other presentations, may be found at http://www.mowin.org/WQSC/April2007/index.htmlFor the items in MOspace regarding the 2007 Water Quality Short Course, please see https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/browse?value=Water+Quality+Short+Course+2007&type=subjectThis presentation includes two parts. The first part (83 slides) discusses riparian forest buffers, including function, types and design considerations. The second part (68 slides) discusses findings that agroforestry and grass buffers increase water stable soil aggregates and soil enzyme activity

Microclimate studies of crop environments under different agroforestry arrangements [abstract]

Abstract only availableOne of the factors influencing crop yields is evapotranspiration; the evaporation of water from both plants and soil. Soil moisture provides many nutrients to crops, so evapotranspiration rates are of concern. This study will focus on the environmental conditions above crop fields in Northeastern Missouri and see which conditions lead to higher evapotranspiration rates. The fields also contain two kinds of buffers: a tree and a grass buffer. Weather instrumentation was placed above the crops between the different buffers and data was collected in regular intervals throughout each day over the past two years. The first year the crop was corn, and soybeans the second year. Some of the variables looked at include temperature, humidity, net radiation, wind speed, and wind direction. In this project a comparison is made between the conditions over soybeans between the tree and grass buffer to see which buffer creates which environmental conditions. The main hypothesis was that grass buffers would lead to higher evapotranspiration rates due to higher winds (grass being shorter than trees) advecting moisture away. Evapotranspiration rates were derived using a Penman equation and, using MATLAB, graphs were made of each of the variables using 10-day averages. It was determined that the hypothesis was correct by looking at the data output qualitatively. However, the significance of the difference between the grass and agroforestry buffers has yet to be found since the time period used in the Penman equation is questionable. Therefore the equations used thus far will be examined thoroughly and modified if need be to set the quantitative data to the correct time period. In this results will be obtained that will be more understandable to the general public and science community.CAFNR On Campus Research Internshi

Mixtures of native warm-season grasses, forbs and legumes for biomass, forage and wildlife habitat (2017)

This guide provides information to help Missouri landowners and property managers make informed decisions on growing native warm-season grasses, forbs and legumes for biomass, livestock forage and wildlife habitat

Using native warm-season grass, forb and legume mixtures for biomass, livestock forage and wildlife benefits : a case study (2017)

Case StudyThis guide is a companion to MU Extension publications G9422, Integrating Practices That Benefit Wildlife With Crops Grown for Biomass in Missouri, and G9423, Mixtures of Native Warm-Season Grasses, Forbs and Legumes for Biomass, Forage and Wildlife Habitat, which outlines the benefits of using these mixtures of native warm-season forages and provides information to help landowners make informed decisions on enhancing wildlife habitats while producing crops for biomass. Establishment and management practices, as well as yield results, are presented as a case study in this guide so that others can implement similar practices on their property