The adoption of pennycress as a cash cover crop offers financial benefits for farmers. Pennycress adoption can also have ecosystem benefits, including nutrient retention and increased pollinator health and biodiversity. The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America), which is the second-largest dead zone globally, has been linked to nitrogen inputs from agricultural areas in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Both surface and subsurface drainage modifications bypass traditional mitigation efforts. Furthermore, insect pollinators are negatively impacted by modern agriculture monocultures of self- or wind-pollinated crops that are poor food sources. Pollinator access to food resources is essential in spring, when nest-building, egg-laying, and brood-rearing occur. Pennycress as a cover crop can provide these and other ecosystem services that other cover crops do not.

Assessing SCN Development Potential

Soybean cyst nematode (SCN, Heterodera glycines) is a species of concern for soybean producers throughout the Midwest, as high populations can reduce soybean yields. Currently, the bi-annual rotation of soybean with non-host corn helps control SCN population density, but the addition of pennycress into this rotation is a concern for the IPREFER project. The IPREFER project is assessing the development potential of SCN on pennycress in field trials in Minnesota and southern Illinois. Preliminary data suggest that SCN can reproduce on pennycress in controlled-environment settings, but the potential for SCN to reproduce under field conditions is limited due to the temperature constraints of pennycress’ winter-annual life cycle. Preliminary field data suggest no detectable effect of including pennycress in a corn-soybean rotation on SCN population density.

As IPREFER was funded by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture – Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant program (Grant No. 2019-69012-29851), any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in these articles are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

To quantify the benefits of pennycress as a winter cover crop, we focused on:

• Assessing pennycress’ impacts on reducing nutrient flux, nitrogen, and phosphorus, from subsurface drainage throughout the year.
• Determining abundance and diversity of pollinating insects of pennycress which flowers earlier than most other plants.
• Measuring pennycress forage resources (pollen and nectar) for pollinators and characterizing the health of both individual honeybees and colonies near pennycress fields.
• Assessing the development potential of SCN on pennycress in field trials in Minnesota and southern Illinois.

Leadership

• William (Bill) Perry, Co-Project Director, Illinois State University

Collaborators & Students

• Jason Bond, Southern Illinois University (SCN)
• Senyu Chen, University of Minnesota (SCN)
• Ahmad M. Fakhoury, Southern Illinois University (SCN)
• Frank Forcella, University of Minnesota (Pollinators)
• Kaveh Javanshirjavid, Southern Illinois University, (Graduate Student) (SCN)
• Ryan Meyer, Illinois State University (Graduate Student)
• Rob Rhykerd, Illinois State University

2021 & 2023 Integrated Plant Systems – Undergraduate Research Experience

• Riley Ellarson (2023), University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
• Alex Hafner (2021), Illinois State University
• William Rice (2021), University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
• Ellinor Sheik (2024), Vassar College
• Kayla Vittore (2020), University of Minnesota – Twin Cities

Alumni

• Cody A. Hoerning, University of Minnesota (Graduate Student)
• Leonardo, Rocha, Southern Illinois University, (PostDoc Researcher) (SCN)
• Mujen (Jack) Wang, Illinois State University (Graduate Student)