1. Production and Economics of Perennial-based Woody and Herbaceous Biomass Crops under alley-cropping Systems Gregg Johnson1, David Smith2, Joshua Gamble2, Dean Current2, Bill Lazarus3, Bill Berguson4, Donald Wyse1, Diomy Zamora2 , Gary Wyatt, and Craig Sheaffer1,  
1Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics
2Department of Forest Resources
3Department of Applied Economics
4Natural Resource Research Institute

2. Research objectives Evaluate productivity, species pairings
Refine biomass production database
Decision support tool

3. Alley cropping experiment
2 woody crops, 4 herbaceous crops
15.2 m alley between tree rows
3 on-farm sites: Fairmont, Empire, and Granada, MN
2 floodplain, 1 stream terrace
5 years ( )
4.9 m (16 ft)
15.2 m (50 ft)
Highlight what the alley is!! 3

4. Crops Switchgrass Prairie cordgrass 11 species native polyculture
Alfalfa - intermediate wheatgrass mixture
Shrub willow ‘Fish Creek’ (Salix purpurea)
Poplar hybrid ‘NM6’ (Populus nigra x P. maximowiczii)
Crops were mowed twice during the establishment year
Single fall harvest… 4

5. Research
Sites
Empire
Granada
Empire site in July 2013
Fairmont

6. Productivity
Herbaceous yield decline at Empire from to 2013 (North-South alleys)
Relatively constant yields at other sites
Figure 1 Relative yield of herbaceous biomass at Empire in 2013 with respect to distance from the tree row. Yield in the center of the alley (7.6 m from tree row) is the reference (1.0), which is denoted by the horizontal dashed line. Error bars represent one standard error of the mean. Points that share the same letter are not different (P ≤ 0.05)
Distance from tree row (m)

7. 2013 woody biomass

8. Resource availability & productivity
Growth resources
PAR
Soil N availability
Soil water potential (+ soil temperature)
Plant responses
LAI / biomass

9. Soil matric potential Sensors A & E: in tree rows
Sensors B & D are 2.44 m from tree rows
Sensors A & E: in tree rows
Sensors B & D: m from tree rows
Sensor C (center): 7.6 m from tree rows

10. Soil C
Figure 6: Soil total organic carbon (TOC) on two sampling dates (left panel) and percent change in TOC (right panel) by soil depth over four years in alley cropping systems at two Minnesota sites. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals of the mean.

11. Biomass Production Database
Relational Database
MySQL
Data Entry
Web Application
Manual Data Entry
CSV Import/Export by data table
Bulk Import/Export

12. Biomass Web Application
Research Data
Decision Support Tool
Inputs
Operations
Budgets
Economic (Enterprise)
Environmental

13. Biomass Web Application
Users
Research
Non-economists
Economists
Extension
Natural Resource Professional
Educators
Producers
Farmers
Crop Consultants

14. Biomass Web Application
Site/Field ✔
Inputs ✔
Operations ✔
Budgets
Enterprise ✔
AAEA Task Force on Commodity Cost and Returns
Environmental
CENTURY (biomass, carbon, nitrogen leaching)
RUSLE (soil loss, phosphorus)
Research Specific Data

15. Inputs

16. Inputs | List

17. Operations

18. Reports | Enterprise Budgets | Detail

19. Reports | Enterprise Budgets | Cash Flow

20. Questions? Funding provided by: The North Central SunGrant Initiative
MPCA / EPA 319 Clean Water Act Grant
MN Dept. of Agriculture
Xcel Energy Renewable Development Fund
North Central SARE
Special thanks to:
Rural Advantage, Martin SWCD
USDA National Agroforestry Center,
Metropolitan Council,
Darwin & Sandy Roberts, Dean Maschoff
Matt Bickell , Joshua Larson, & Airtone Lina 20 20