Small Grains in the Corn Belt

Nov 29, 2022

The landscape across the Corn Belt is dominated by just two crops – corn and soybeans. This system is inherently leaky; crops grow during the summer months and leave the land uncovered the remainder of the year when soils are vulnerable to precipitation and wind. Extending the rotation with a cool season small grain (oats, wheat, rye, triticale) coupled with a cover crop can keep the land covered year-round and offer an essential unlock and speedier path to profitable regenerative agriculture farming systems.

Small grains were once a common part of Midwest cropping systems but are now scarce in the Corn Belt. Markets have disappeared as animals moved away from the farm and the feed system became optimized for corn and soy. Today farmers want to diversify and grow small grains but cite the lack of markets as their biggest barrier to bring small grains back into their rotation system.

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Video: Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes | Field Talk Friday

Field Talk Friday | Dr. John Murphy | Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes

Most of us spend our time managing what we can see above ground—plant height, leaf color, stand counts, and yield potential. But the deeper you dig into agronomy, the more you realize that some of the most important processes driving crop performance are happening just millimeters below the surface.

In this episode of Field Talk Friday, Dr. John Murphy continues the soil biology series by diving into one of the most fascinating topics in modern agronomy: root exudates and the role they play in shaping the microbial world around plant roots.

Roots are not passive structures simply pulling nutrients out of the soil. They are active participants in the underground ecosystem. Plants constantly release compounds into the soil—sugars, amino acids, organic acids, and other molecules—that act as both energy sources and signals for soil microbes.