Evaluating the Sustainability of Double-Cropping Rotations with Pennycress (Thlaspi arvense)

Abstract

Pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L.) is an emerging winter annual cash cover crop that can help address environmental concerns with summer annual cropping systems while also providing additional income as an industrial feedstock. Cropping systems research has mainly focused on incorporating pennycress into the corn – soybean rotation that dominates the upper Midwest. However, research into double-cropping systems with specialty crops is lacking. The purpose of this thesis is to assess the environmental and economic feasibility of a variety of specialty crops following pennycress; determine the effects of sweetcorn nitrogen fertilization on following pennycress yields; and quantify the ability of pennycress to reduce residual inorganic soil nitrogen.