Chuck West, program director and Thornton Distinguished Chair of Plant and Soil Science at Texas Tech University, is the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Center for Grassland Studies’ 2018 Distinguished Leu Lecture speaker. West will deliver a presentation entitled “Role of Forage Crops and Grazing in the Water-Limited Texas High Plains” on Nov. 12 from 3:00—4:00 p.m. in the Nebraska East Union on the university’s East Campus. The lecture is free to the public.
West’s current research concentrates on quantifying the water use of forage crops and pastures as affected by grazing management in an effort to integrate forages into row-crop systems as a way to reduce the use of irrigation water while sustaining profitability of Texas High Plains agricultural systems. During the lecture, he will provide an overview of how the decline in groundwater output from the Ogallala Aquifer affects cropping systems in the Texas High Plains. He will also review recent work on integrating grazing systems into a cotton system, and provide an analysis of the water footprint of beef stocker systems as affected by the inclusion of alfalfa in a predominant grass system.
West received his bachelor of science and master’s degree in agronomy from the University of Minnesota–St. Paul, and his doctorate in crop production/physiology from Iowa State University. He directs and coordinates the Texas Coalition for Sustainable Integrated Systems Research and the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation. West previously served as faculty for the University of Arkansas, was a Fulbright Research Fellow conducting research on tall fescue drought tolerance at INRA in Montpellier, France, and is a current fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society of America.
The Leu Lecture was established in 1998 to honor the grassland heritage of Nebraska. Frank and Margaret Leu had a deep passion for education and a vision for sustaining the stewardship of the Nebraska grasslands for future generations.