agronomy Article Regenerating Agricultural Landscapes with Perennial Groundcover for Intensive Crop Production Kenneth J. Moore 1,* , Robert P. Anex 2 , Amani E. Elobeid 3 , Shuizhang Fei 4, Cornelia B. Flora 5, A. Susana Goggi 1, Keri L. Jacobs 3, Prashant Jha 1, Amy L. Kaleita 6, Douglas L. Karlen 7, David A. Laird 1, Andrew W. Lenssen 1 , Thomas Lübberstedt 1, Marshall D. McDaniel 1, D. Raj Raman 6 and Sharon L. Weyers 8 1 Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA 2 Department of Biological Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA 3 Department of Economics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA 4 Department of Horticulture, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA 5 Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA 6 Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA 7 USDA-Agricultural Research Service, National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment, Ames, IA 50011, USA 8 USDA-ARS, North Center Soil Conservation Research Laboratory, Morris, MN 56267, USA * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-515-294-5482 Received: 12 July 2019; Accepted: 13 August 2019; Published: 15 August 2019 Abstract: The Midwestern U.S. landscape is one of the most highly altered and intensively managed ecosystems in the country. The predominant crops grown are maize (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr]. They are typically grown as monocrops in a simple yearly rotation or with multiple years of maize (2 to 3) followed by a single year of soybean.