Dr. Erin Silva runs the Organic and Sustainable Agriculture Research and Extension program at UW-Madison. Learn more about her group’s cutting-edge research in organic no-till, interseeding, cover crops and more below.
Annual Research Reports
2025 Annual Research Report
Updates on the latest studies from the Silva Lab and our collaborators including:
- No-till organic soybeans
- Living mulch corn systems
- Grazing rotations
- No-till planter improvements
- No-till organic dry beans
2023 Annual Research Report
Updates on the latest studies from the Silva Lab and our collaborators including:
- No-till organic soybeans
- Organic dry beans
- Disease management in organic grain crops
- Reduced tillage organic corn
- Organic oilseed crops
- On-farm research updates
- Outreach programming and resources
2022 Annual Research Report
Updates on the latest studies from the Silva Lab and our collaborators including:
- Rye variety for weed suppression in organic no-till soybean
- No-till soybean planter setups
- Yield potential in wide-row corn
- Dry bean seeding rates
- Sunflower variety trials
- Soybeans planted into triticale
- Pole beans in an organic corn silage system
Publications
Spring-seeded winter rye living mulches enhance crop biodiversity and promote reduced tillage organic soybeans. As recognition increases of the benefits of reducing soil disturbance to preserve soil health, there is mounting interest in developing innovative methods of using cover crops as living mulches to control weeds in organic grain systems. Spring-planted winter cereal rye (Secale cereale L.) interseeded with soybeans (Glycine max. [L.] Merr.) is a promising, yet untested, living mulch system because rye exhibits vigorous growth in the early spring during the critical weed free period, but then dies back as the soybean canopy matures. The objectives of this study were to compare a rye living mulch system with a tilled “organic business-as-usual” control, and to understand the risks and benefits associated with delaying soybean planting date to manage the weed seed bank prior to establishment of rye and soybeans.
Harvest of Ideas 2.0 was held in 2025 to focus on Organic Agriculture as a Solution for Global Challenges. Proceedings from the event, and the final report Unlocking the Power of Organic: Recommendations for U.S. and Global Resilience, both synthesize insights from this event. This report offers recommendations for strategic investment in organic agriculture.
Harvest of Ideas began with an in-person event in 2018 from which the first Harvest of Ideas report was developed to guide research and education for organic agriculture in Wisconsin.
Researchers
Dr. Erin Silva
Associate Professor, Department of Plant Pathology
Director, Center of Integrated Agricultural Systems
Clif Bar Endowed Chair in Organic Agriculture and Outreach
Dr. Erin Silva is the director for the Center of Integrated Agricultural Systems, the Clif Bar Endowed Chair in Organic Agriculture and Outreach, and Associate Professor in the Plant Pathology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research and extension program focuses on sustainable and organic cropping systems, including cover crops and cover crop-based no-till production, the impact of organic management on soil biological and physical properties.
Ben Brockmueller
Research specialist, UW-Madison
M.S. Agronomy, South Dakota State University
Ben has been working as a Research Specialist for Dr. Erin Silva for 2 years focused on organic crop production. He received his M.S. in Agronomy from South Dakota State University where he explored the relationships between nutrient cycling and soybean production in cover crop-based systems. Underlining his work is passion for working together with farmers to develop agricultural systems that merge ecological and agronomic objectives.
