"Explosives for the Environment" An Alternative Method to Cover Crop Seeding

Image Credit: Becky Jones

March 20, 2019

“Explosives for the Environment” sounds like an oxymoron, but Institute of Applied Agriculture student, Caroline Trossbach thinks it sounds like an ideal solution to cover crop seeding.

Trossbach, a continuing education student from St. Mary’s County, was one of eight finalists in The AgEnterprise Challenge ’19 on February 27. Hosted by the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources(AGNR), the AgEnterprise Challenge encourages innovation and entrepreneurship by offering cash awards to students to help build and scale their businesses.

Trossbach, a Conservation Planner for the St. Mary's Soil Conservation District and previous planner for the Calvert Soil Conservation District, grew up on and continues to live on her family’s farm in St. Mary’s County. One of the challenges most grain farmers face is planting cover crops early enough for the maximum environmental and economic benefits to be achieved. This problem occurs due to (a) weather conditions (such as the historic amount of rain in Maryland this year) and (b) location considerations (such as proximity to military flight-testing facilities). Her first-hand farming experience combined with her soil conservation work, led her to innovate “Bay-Be-Blue,” a cannon-type device that would shoot cover crop seeds into areas missed by aerial seeding.

With her proposed alternative cover crop seeding method, benefits include improved crop yields for cover crops and for cash crops, improved soil health in the crop fields, and decrease of labor associated with planting.

After watching Trossbach’s competition pitch, Dr. Dan Kugler, who spearheaded AGNR’s Agriculture Innovation to Commercialization (AgI2C) initiative, commented, “Now, that’s innovation!”

Although she didn’t win the cash prize, Trossbach had fun and will continue to do her part to help
implement Best Management Practices on farms to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay.