Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The meeting was held both in person and virtually on January 8, 2025, one day after the Spring meeting of the board of the Southern Cover Crop Council (SCCC). The meeting started with an introduction of all project participants. Gabriel Maltais-Landry moderated the meeting, and it was attended by NIFA representative Dr. Bisoondat “Mac” Macoon. Main topics covered included an overview of the new S1085 project; a merger proposal between S1085 and the SCCC research committee; reports and plans of work for each objective of the new S1085; and a discussion on plans to submit publications and grant proposals.

Overview of S1085 (Gabriel Maltais Landry): Details were provided on the new project (https://nimss.org/projects/S1085/) that started on 10/2024 and will end on 9/2029. Participants were reminded that Cindy Morley can help folks from 1890s interested in joining S1085 that lack administrative authority to become members. The two-step process to join the Hatch was reviewed: first become a member via NIMSS, then submit an individual plan of work for the Multi-State Hatch within the home institution.

S1085/SCCC research committee merger (Carlene Chase): Presentation of the proposed merger of the S1085 Hatch with the research committee of SCCC, to address communication and execution issues that arose when leadership of the Hatch was not active in SCCC. Moving forward, the chair for S1085 and the SCCC Research Committee Chair become co-leaders of the merged group. This merged group meets in-person once per year (annual meeting requiring USDA approval, allowing for multistate travel funds to be used) in addition to two more times virtually per year. The merged group will meet once the new SCCC research chair is active.

Objective 1 (Jake Mower): This objective will continue to evaluate a common set of soil health indices that are applicable and meaningful across crop and cover crop combinations throughout the region’s diverse conditions to develop a region-wide set of recommended practices. Jake will continue to serve as leader of this objective, and the main priority is to complete and submit the review paper he has been leading on soil health indicators for the Southeast. He also plans to develop and submit a grant focusing on this objective.

Objective 2 (Audrey Gamble): This objective will continue to focus on the selection and evaluation of summer and winter cover crop germplasm for regional adaptability, and to determine the appropriate timing of planting, seeding rates, utilization of cover crop goods, and termination to optimize benefits. Audrey Gamble will continue to lead this objective. The main activities for this objective are to continue with the multistate winter cover crop variety trial that Virginia Sykes is leading from TN; evaluate the relevance of conducting a warm-season cover crop trial instead of one focusing on winter cover crops; review data from an old small grains trial to see if it’s publishable; and submit a manuscript from past trials for peer-review.

Objective 3 (Gabriel Maltais-Landry): This objective will focus on assessing the influence of cover crops on soil properties that affect cash crop outcomes. Nithya Rajan led this objective in the past but is no longer available to lead for the new S1085 project – she will remain active in the objective though. The main priority is to find a new objective leader and coordinate with other objectives to lead/participate in new proposal submissions.

Objective 4 (Carlene Chase): This objective will continue to characterize cover crop efficacy for enhancing cropping system resilience to weeds, pests, and plant pathogens. Carlene will step down from leading this objective, so a new leader is needed. Along with renewing leadership, priorities for this objective are to finalize data analysis and submission of the manuscript on cowpea seeding rates; complete manuscripts from the PSA project “common experiment 2”; and collaborate with objective 2 projects and grant submissions.

As this new S1085 project is relatively recent, most accomplishments focus on 1. Completing manuscripts from the old S1085 and submitting them for peer review and 2. Write grant proposals to develop new work.

Several papers are in development, with expected submission within the next year, including papers led by Audrey Gamble (cover crop seeding rates; objective 2), Danielle Treadwell (soybean N mineralization; objective 3), and Carlene Chase (weed control in soybean [objective 4] and cowpea variety trial [objective 2]). Other papers should progress substantially in the next year, focusing on the winter cover crop variety trial led by Virginia Sykes (objective 2) and the review on soil health indicators led by Jake Mowrer (objective 1). Additional paper ideas were discussed, include tapping into existing datasets, such as the long-term project led by the Soil Health Institute, the small grains trial that Audrey Gamble led several years ago, and datasets from the PSA project.

Several funding opportunities were discussed, with planned work and submission in the upcoming year. In terms of opportunities, the CIG should be a primary target if/when it reopens, and Carlene Chase submitted one in 2023 (FY24) that was not funded; Audrey might lead a revised submission. OREI could be considered for FY 2026, SCRI and AFRI can be considered for FY2025, but all depend on which programs will still exist and have funding available. Commodity funding is already being tapped in to some extent, but that will vary by state, IDC allowed, etc. Proposals should, to the extent possible, include funding for SCCC staff, such as Sarah Seehaver. Several ideas were discussed (e.g., cover crop termination timing and methods), and a follow-up meeting will be set up to determine what proposal(s) to prioritize, in terms of funding agency and topic. Proposal submission remains uncertain given the situation of federal funding for research.

This project is only a few months old, hence there are no publications to report for this project for the reporting period.