Watch video of Dr. Ebony Murrell from The Land Institute and Jessica Butters from Kansas State University hosting a virtual webinar to discuss data collected during a 3-year research study on utilizing perennial grain species as border crops, and the services they provide in pollinator habitat, weed suppression, and forage potential. They also gave a brief virtual tour of the research plots and answered questions regarding perennial border crops and the services they provide.
Border crops have the potential to deliver agronomically important ecosystem services to crop fields. Perennial plantings could be advantageous in providing low-maintenance ground cover for field borders, flowers for pollinators, and even forage for livestock. In this webinar, we will discuss the border crop potential of four perennial species at The Land Institute being domesticated as perennial grain crops – sainfoin, silflower, cup plant, and Kernza® – compared to two known border and forage crops, alfalfa and a 9-species prairie mixture.