Instructor(s): Sam Wortman
Number of Credit Hours: 3
Cross-listings: PLAS 425
Prerequisites: PLAS 131 or PLAS 278; PLAS/SOIL 153 (or equivalent)
Description: Explore the management, environmental, economic, and social considerations of cover crops across a diversity of agricultural production systems and regions. Grow cover crops, measure benefits and tradeoffs, and apply knowledge to make management and policy recommendations.
Learning Outcomes/Course Objectives
- Define cover crop types and describe characteristics of cover crop species and functional groups and their agroecosystem services.
- Manage and make decisions about cover crops across a diversity of climates, soils, and cropping systems.
- Measure the short- and long-term economic impacts of cover crop management decisions.
- Quantify the environmental benefits of cover crops using digital tools and describe how those benefits are influenced by management decisions across environments.
- Apply cover crop system knowledge to design and assess policy and social initiatives to help overcome barriers to cover crop adoption.