PMC Field Trials - Field Plantings for Monarch Butterfly Pollinators

In early 2016, PM Specialist, Jerry Kaiser worked

with Missouri NRCS Biologist, Chris Hamilton, to evaluate nine native forbs (Table 1) commonly used in the Upland Wildlife Habitat Management Standard (Conservation Practice 645). The species selected are considered high nectar types for Monarch butterflies. Mr. Kaiser, along with staff at the Elsberry PMC, planted two fields at the PMC, an upland site and a bottomland site. Both sites were planted into four ¼ acre plots; half were seeded at a rate of 20 pure live seed (PLS) per square foot and the other half at 40 PLS/ft2. A grass component (sideoats grama) was included in the forb mixture and applied to half of each seeding rate treatment. After a year of establishment, half of each field was subjected to a prescribed burn in late winter to reduce the potential of annual weeds.

2017

Elsberry Plant Materials Center United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service 2803 N. Hwy. 79 Elsberry, Missouri 63343 Phone: 573-898-2012 Fax: 573-898-5019 Go to Missouri Plant Materials Center

Elsberry Plant Materials Center 2017 Progress Report of Activities

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Plant Materials Center Staff Ron Cordsiemon – PMC Manager

Mollie Herget - Agronomist Erin Tapley – WAE

Craig King – Resource Conservationist

Missouri State Conservationist J.R. Flores

Missouri State Resource Conservationist

Dwaine Gelnar

Plant Materials Specialist Jerry Kaiser

Earth Team Volunteers

Jimmy Henry Sacred Heart Men’s Club

The Elsberry Plant Materials Center sits on approximately 215 acres along the Mississippi River bottoms in northeastern Lincoln County.

Species composition was evaluated in 2017, a year and a half after the plots had been established. Transects were taken in all plots across all treatments except in the

upland plots that had not been burned. Weed pressure, primarily marestail, was extremely heavy making evaluations impossible. In the bottomland site, species composition doubled for each species present in the plots where a 40 PLS/ft2 seeding rate was used versus a 20 PLS/ft2 seeding rate. Species composition varied between seeding rate treatments at the upland site. The presence of milkweed species differed at each site. All forb species planted appeared at the bottomland site except for Swamp Milkweed, while all species except Common Milkweed appeared at the upland site. The addition of grass to the mixture did not have a major affect on any of the forb species. In the bottomland site, prescribed burning had a positive impact on rattlesnake master and wild bergamot, a

negative affect on oxeye false sunflower, and a neutral affect on all other forb species. Across both sites, however, visual observations suggest that areas that had been burned promoted native forbs and suppressed the majority of annual weeds. Our comparisons suggest the main factor to plant establishment and diversity is the lack of weed competition, whether due to fire management or some other form of weed control. Further evaluations will again be taken in 2018. National Cover Crop Variety Adaptation Trial 2017 marked the beginning of the 3rd year evaluating 60 different varieties of eight selected species of cover crops. The species being evaluated are daikon radish, hairy vetch, balansa clover, winter pea, crimson clover, red clover, black oats and cereal rye. Evaluations consisted of emergence, spring green up, bloom and flowering time, plant height, disease and insect resistance, winter hardiness, canopy cover and biomass. This fall had drought-like conditions followed by extreme low temperatures which will test the plants’ adaptation to this PMC’s service area. Like previous years, both poor seedling emergence and low plant vigor going into the winter months.

Figures 1 and 2 show field and state office staff assisting in winter hardiness counts. The counts consisted of counting the number of live cover crop plants in a selected row within the cover crop plot in the fall. The area was marked with a “whisker” stake and will be counted again in the spring to determine winter hardiness or the percent of material that survived the winter.

Table 1. Monarch Forb Species Purple Coneflower Wild Bergamot Swamp Milkweed Common Milkweed Stiff Goldenrod New England Aster Rattlesnake Master Blackeyed Susan Oxeye False Sunflower

Figure 1. A meter stick is used to take winter hardiness counts

Cover Crop Fall Planting Date Study

2017 marked the end of the first full yearlong cycle of 28 cover crop species being tested to determine the optimum time to plant in the fall. The Elsberry PMC planted the selected species on August 15, September 15 and October 15 of 2016. Characteristics that were being evaluated were emergence, canopy cover, winter hardiness, spring regrowth and above ground biomass. Cover crops planted in the months of August and September established and performed well going into the winter months compared to October-planted cover crops.

A second yearlong cycle of the study was initated in fall 2017 and will continue through spring 2018. This year, a November 15 planting was added to monitor a total of four fall planting dates. The fall of 2017-18 was much different as dry conditions allowed for heavy weed competition and irregular seedling emergence. Fall biomass has declined dramatically from the previous year. Long Term Soil Health and Water Quality Study

The Elsberry Plant Materials Center began collecting data in its first year working on a long-term project to study the effects of different tillage and cover crop treatments on soil health and water quality. Comparisons will be made on the effects of conventional tillage, no tillage, and no tillage plus cover crops to a corn-soybean rotation by monitoring runoff and soil health.

Figure 2. Lucas Brass, Resource Conservationist from Ralls County, is seen here assisting with winter hardiness counts in a plot of cereal rye.

This is the first of two years of baseline data collection where conventional tillage will occur in all three treatment areas. In spring 2017, the three 0.5 acre plots were planted to corn as the commodity crop. Water quality monitoring equipment was set up at the lowest point in elevation within each of the three catchments to caputure runoff. During precipitation events, runoff is funneled through H-flumes, detected by a flow meter, and collected by a sampler. All water samples are then collected by PMC staff in a timely fashion and sent to the University of Missouri for analysis.

Winterizing the water quality equipment proved challenging as this study site is off-grid. Staff at the PMC took precautions to insulate the stilling wells (the area of the flume that detects runoff flow and triggers water samples to be taken) using heat tape. However, due to the amount of energy that the heat tape required, extra solar pannels and batteries were added to each catchment. Legume Cover Crop Breeding Program

In the fall of 2017, the Elsberry PMC entered into an agreement with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) to grow out cover crop populations of crimson clover as part of a new breeding program. The PMC planted the two different selections from ARS in three separate plots. A population from the USDA-ARS station in Beltsville, Maryland was divided based on hard seed and soft seed and made up two of the plots at the PMC. Another population from Cornell University in New York comprised the third plot at the PMC. The PMC at Knox City, TX is also growing populations of crimson clover for seed production as part of the same project. The plots were planted over 1300 feet apart and will have cereal rye grass planted around the plots as a vegetative barrier to limit pollinator travel between populations. Seed will be harvested in 2018 and used in further varietal testing and evaluations.

The picture to the left shows edge-of-field monitoring flume. The portion of the flume situated in the ground is called the stilling well.

Mollie Herget, PMC Agronomist, evaluating a crimson clover planting at the Elsberry PMC.

Jerry Kaiser, Elsberry Plant Materials Specialist Retires

After 37 years as a government employee, Jerry Kaiser, has decided to call it a career. Jerry began his career in 1978 with the Illinois Department of Conservation. He moved to Manhattan, KS in 1980 to work for the Corps of Engineers. In 1981, Jerry started working for NRCS (SCS) as a Soil Conservation Technician. Jerry worked in the southern portion of Illinois as a District Conservationist before coming to the PMC in 1996, where he spent 21 years as the Plant Materials Specialist serving Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. Jerry’s commitment and dedication to the Plant Materials Program and expertise will certainly be missed!

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