Two of the main objectives of the Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) project are to:

1) conduct field evaluations to compare the environmental benefits of the Innovative Cropping System (ICS or Never-till) to conventional management cropping systems

2) develop and disseminate information, data, and documents, etc., which would be helpful in creating a trading framework.

Virginia Tech, under the leadership of Dr. Mark Alley and graduate student John Spargo, has taken the principal role for data collection from field study sites.  The following is a display of the work that has gone into the field evaluations to date.

 

The first step in the project was the delivery of the 20' x 48" pipe, which serves as the support for the vertical shaft where the lysimeters are located.
The next step was to cut the pipe to length (6'8") and cut a "window" for the insertion of the lysimeter tray.
After the prep work was complete, it was time to sink the pipe into the ground.  Thanks to Venture Electric, Inc. and their 48" auger pictured here, the job was relatively easy.  This picture shows: one completed test site (with metal top); one test site near completion (pipe is in the ground but without the metal top); and a third test site which is being bored.
Here is a view looking down into a completed test site.  Shortly, a horizontal shaft will be excavated out through the visible window and the lysimeter will be inserted.  Each test site will contain a lysimeter placed approximately 4 feet below the undisturbed crop row.
After the test sites have been sunk into the ground, it is time for the farmer to plant his crop.  For the next three years, lysimeters will collect water as it moves downward through the soil profile. 

Measurements being made in similar crop rotations comparing long-term no-till and conventional tillage systems include total carbon and nitrogen sequestered as well as nitrate moving through the soil profile. These
measurements will quantify the differences between the long-term no-tillage systems and systems that have used conventional tillage with respect to environmental impacts of the systems.