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Kansas - Manhattan Plant Materials Center Highlights

Highlights

SOIL HEALTH AND WATER QUALITY 

  • Multiple statistically sound studies to address field office identified needs for regionally relevant guidance on cover crop species performance, seeding rate and establishment methods. These studies will provide conservation planners the foundation they need to deliver the best possible advice and guidance to NRCS customers and Farm Bill Program participants in pursuit of their soil health and sustainability goals.

PLANT DIVERISTY AND POLLINATOR HABITAT

  • The KSPMC is evaluating methods to optimize the success of establishing forbs in existing grass lands.  This effort includes both management of the existing vegetation as well as seeding methods and treatment of the forb seed prior to planting.

RANGELAND PRODUCTIVITY AND HEALTH

  • The KSPMC hosts prescribed burn training for NRCS Rangeland Specialists to obtain the required certification to plan prescribed burns, a management practice that is vital to the ecology of the locally abundant but nationally scarce tallgrass prairie found in the Flinthills region of Kansas.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

  • The KSPMC is expanding its production of difficult to obtain yet critically important forb variety releases to support the expansion of pollinator habitat in the surrounding region.
  • KSPMC developed germination and propagation methodology for the federally threatened native plant species Mead’s milkweed. KSPMC worked with USFWS Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge to increase the Mead’s milkweed population in Kansas.
  • Improving stand establishment and drought tolerance in sand bluestem through technology transfer in the Crop Science journal article Field Emergence and Plant Density of Sand Bluestem Lines Selected for Increased Seed Germination.