“ took with it soil that ended up in sedimentation and pollution down the watershed,” Tautges says. Tautges explains what her boss witnessed happens in countless farm fields across Wisconsin when there’s heavy rain. And a few springs ago, during a very rainy stretch, he saw water rush down this hill," she says. “Because the field we’re looking at has this considerable slope. Tautges says her new boss was particularly interested in testing the merits of Kernza in the institute’s fields. She eventually joined the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute located in East Troy, Wisconsin as its agroecologist. Her research of Kernza began when she did her post doctoral work at the University of Minnesota. Researchers like Tautges are out to prove that “perennializing” farm systems -meaning growing crops that don’t have to be replanted every year- will become a fundamental component of climate-smart agriculture of the future. She says it’s mostly used as a popular forage for livestock and cattle.
It came first in the 20th century and has become widespread in the west,” Tautges says.
Kernza, she says, is the name given to what’s called an intermediate wheatgrass that grows to be up to six feet tall. Tautges points out the difference in land cover of the winter rye crop on the right. Nicole Tautges Kernza field (left) in mid April.
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