Brian Luck, associate professor of biological systems engineering, received USDA-NIFA funding for his project Tread lightly: Furthering understanding of the impact of wheel traffic of various harvest machines in alfalfa production systems through the Alfalfa Seed and Alfalfa Forage Systems (ASAFS) grant program. It was among five projects sharing $3.7 million in funding.

Project summary (from NIFA database): Alfalfa is an important crop due to its use in animal feed. In recent years, the yield of production alfalfa has not kept pace with the advances in genetics and breeding and yields observed in a research plot setting. One major difference in production versus research is the type and size of equipment used at harvest. With this research, we will try to understand how much damage modern harvest equipment causes to growing alfalfa plants. With this information we can then push for a paradigm shift in the method alfalfa is harvested where machines travel on in-field roads and minimize all traffic on the remaining portions of the field. This could lead to higher alfalfa yields at each harvest, minimization of damage to soil structure across the fields making them more productive, and increase the longevity of the stand which is an economic benefit to farmers who grow alfalfa.