Soil erosion and nutrient run offs are long known to be the major threats to our food systems. Soil conservation efforts are important to manage the threats and one of the most widely used strategies is cover cropping also known as “living mulch”.
The goal of this six-year project is to understand if dairy feed production systems using advanced soil health management practices can sequester as much carbon as they emit, essentially becoming ‘net zero’. In addition to quantifying soil carbon sequestration, the study will also evaluate soil health, surface and subsurface water quality, greenhouse gas emissions from the soil, and crop yield. Climate, soils, and farming systems are different throughout the country, and ̽̽’s portion of the project will focus on the Northeast, and more specifically, Vermont. Soil health management pract
