Monday, 7 November 2005 - 3:00 PM
44-6

Greencover: an Information Access Tool to Support the Use and Research of Cover Crops and Green Manure-Based Systems.

Corey M. Cherr, Johannes Scholberg, and Howard Beck. University of Florida, 310 NW 34th Dr, Gainesville, FL 32607

During the past few decades there is a renewed research interest in the use and potential benefits of cover crops and green manures in agricultural systems. Currently, pertinent research information from the scientific literature is not readily accessible to most end users. Since cover crop performance is affected by complex interactions between crop, production environment and management practices, appropriate interpretation of published results for specific production settings may also be extremely difficult for most producers, extension workers, and researchers. To provide this clientele with improved access to research information, we are developing “GreenCover”, a web-based information access tool. This tool will provide general recommendations pertaining to the selection and management of green manure/cover crop species preceding economic crops. Recommendations will be generated using a rules-based program that will combine user input with a comprehensive knowledge-base of pertinent current cover crop research (1990-2005) in North America. Users will provide input on environment, economic crop, critical management factors, and desired effects from green manures/cover crops. Additionally, GreenCover will outline key information from previous green manure and cover crop research in an easy-access format, and also include links to pre-existing websites offering detailed information about green manure and cover crop species characteristics and seed sources.

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