People of the Alliance: Laura Van Eerd
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Laura Van EerdSchool of Environmental Sciences, Ridgetown Campus, University of Guelph |
As a professor of sustainable soil management at the University of Guelph, Dr. Laura Van Eerd focuses on helping farmers find solutions that enhance soil health, crop productivity and profit margins.
Research focus in the agri-food sector
Van Eerd’s internationally recognized research program helps advance knowledge about the role of cover crops and other management techniques on soil health and productivity.
Long-term cover crop experiments were established in 2007 and 2008 at sites at Ridgetown. Van Eerd’s current cover crop experiments include increasing species diversity in corn, soybean and winter wheat systems, understanding how cover crops improve soil resilience and organic matter content, and studying the role of cover crops in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Another major focus of Van Eerd’s research is enhancing nitrogen use efficiency in low acreage crops and vegetables while mitigating nutrient losses and runoff. Crops include seed corn, sugar beets, carrots, cucumbers, squash and peppers.
Research that’s making an impact
Generating cover crops knowledge: As recognized by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) reviewer, much of the current research on cover crops in North America is “attempting to build on the initial knowledge that Van Eerd has created.”
Shaping policies and programs: Van Eerd’s cover crop and soil health work have helped to shape several policies and programs, such as Ontario’s Agricultural Soil Health and Conservation Strategy and the Ontario Cover Crops Strategy.
Supporting on-farm cover crop decisions: For farmers, Van Eerd’s efforts have yielded an updated and expanded online Cover Crop Decision Tool in collaboration with the Midwest Cover Crops Council. The tool allows growers to pick from more than 30 cover crops that best suit their cropping systems, soils and growing regions.
Van Eerd and her Soils at Guelph team have also developed an award-winning set of downloadable cover crop “recipe cards,” designed to help growers add cover crops into their production system.
Highly qualified personnel training and education
Van Eerd currently serves as advisor to eight graduate students and has seen a further 12 of her students successfully defend their theses. Several of her current graduate students are working to understand the mechanisms behind long-term cover cropping—namely carbon storage and nitrogen cycling.
Future directions
Van Eerd is interested in quantifying system resiliency. Specifically, she is investigating how long-term cover cropping may help enhance drought tolerance in soils.
Other future research involves the use of “site-specific” cover cropping to help build soil organic matter, mitigate erosion, and reduce edge-of-field nutrient losses in targeted areas of a farmer’s field.
Industry and academic collaboration
Van Eerd is co-director and a founding member of Soils At Guelph, a multidisciplinary team working to get soil science knowledge and research into the hands of growers and other stakeholders. At least four KTT projects to Soils At Guelph have been supported in part by the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance.
In addition to funding from the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance, financial and in-kind support for Van Eerd’s research comes from:
- Grain Farmers of Ontario
- Ontario Tomato Research Institute
- Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers
- Fresh Vegetable Growers of Ontario
- Seed Corn Growers of Ontario
- Ontario Sugarbeet Growers Association
- Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association
- Agricultural Adaptation Council
- Corteva Agriscience (Pioneer Seeds Canada)
- ConAgra Brands Inc.
- An NSERC Discovery Grant
Contact information
lvaneerd@uoguelph.ca
Dr. Laura Van Eerd’s profile
Further reading
- Follow Laura Van Eerd on Twitter/X: @LauraVanEerd
- Read her recent projects and extension publications at Soils At Guelph
- Dr. Laura Van Eerd’s Google Scholar profile
Learn more
- Crop Rotation Counts: Key Findings from Long-Term Rotation Plot Research
- Ontario Crops Research Centre - Ridgetown
- Soil: The Next Frontier
- Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance Research Program Directors
Support from the Alliance: Tier 1 operating funding, access to research centres owned by the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario (ARIO), Knowledge Translation and Transfer (KTT) mobilization funding, Special Initiatives Program funding.