Crops in the CropSys CAP

Camelina [Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz] also called false flax, linseed dodder, or gold-of-pleasure is a short-season annual oilseed crop in the Brassicaceae family with agronomic low-input features that has been produced for the oil in Europe for over 3000 years (Putnam el al., 1993, Zubr, 1997). Popularity of camelina has increases due to its unique oil composition, biofuel properties, potential for feed or food, and winter hardiness. Camelina has the ability to adapt across many environments, allowing its cultivation from Canada, Northern and Central Plains, and into the Corn Belt region (Gesch et al., 2014). This can be attributed to camelina’s relatively high level of tolerance to drought and low temperature stress. Because of camelina’s desirable agronomic traits, further research is being done to improve wide adoption of cultivation and cover crops use.

Rye (Secale cereale) is the most common and reliable cover crop in the upper Midwest because it is one of the few cover crops that can successfully establish when planted late in the growing season, it is winter hardy throughout the region, and accumulates meaningful amounts of biomass before spring planting of the subsequent crop. Winter rye is the hardiest of cereal crops and can be seeded later in the fall than other cover crops and still provide considerable dry matter. It also has an extensive soil-holding root system that can lead to significant reduction of nitrate leaching. It is widely adaptive, growing best in cool, temperate zones, but having the ability to perform in infertile, sandy or acidic soil, and poorly prepared land. Rye can establish in very cool temperatures and will germinate as low as 1°C and vegetative growth only requires 3°C. With vegetative growth still active at near freezing temperatures, winter rye has a longer time to establish after germination, which is an important factor in North Dakota. With longer time for biomass growth, rye can be a good weed suppressor in the spring.

Winter rye as a cover crop is proven to have the ability to be integrated into existing corn (Zea mays L.)-soybean production systems, feasibly implemented over large areas, and have been highlighted as a cost-effective strategy for improving environmental stewardship. Rye is the best cool-season cereal cover for absorbing unused soil NO₃-N. It has a fast growing fibrous root system, which helps scavenge for residual NO₃-N throughout the soil profile. Where rye has been overseeded into soybeans in August, leaching losses from September to May has been shown to be less than 5.6 kg of nitrogen (N) per ha^-1. Rye has also shown increases in the concentrations of exchangeable potassium (K) near the soil surface by bring it up form lower in the soil profile.

Field pennycress (Thlaspi arvense), a member of the mustard family (Brassicaceae), is self-pollinating, winter annual oilseed crop. Native to Eurasia, pennycress is highly adapted to the temperate regions of North Americas making it suitable to withstand the winter hardiness needed for the Northern Great Plains. It is currently being researched for use as a feedstock for domestic biodiesel production, as its seeds have high oil content and unsaturated fatty acids. Pennycress seeds are planted in late August-early September, germinate and develop into a rosette that overwinters in this stage. This winter habit allows pennycress to be utilized in a relaycropping system. Pennycress then flowers and develops seeds in late April-early May and is ready to harvest in early June. In the fall of 2013, a multifaceted pennycress breeding program was initiated at the University of Minnesota and has developed the first genomic resources for this exciting species which has aided in its rapid improvement.