What do changes mean for farm operations?

By GARY BROCK

Publisher-Editor

Ohio State University’s Steve Pro­chaska shows farm­ers what they can do to avoid “nutri­ent runoff” - fer­til­izer wash­ing off their land into ponds and streams — in the future.

Ohio farm­ers and live­stock pro­duc­ers will need to make changes in how they oper­ate in the future because of new water qual­ity reg­u­la­tions being rec­om­mended by the state to fight runoff and algae con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of our water supply.

That was the news given recently by Steve Pro­chaska, Field Spe­cial­ist, Agro­nomic Sys­tems for Ohio State Uni­ver­sity Extension.

In light of the let­ters sent in Jan­u­ary to Ohio farm­ers by a coali­tion of about 20 Ohio agri­cul­ture orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing OSU Exten­sion regard­ing water qual­ity reg­u­la­tions, Pro­chaska told a gath­er­ing of farm­ers in Fayette County that the prob­lem is real, and water runoff from parts is a con­tribut­ing fac­tor to the problem.

The let­ter to Ohio farm­ers said, in part: “As a farmer in Ohio you have a sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge bear­ing down quickly. Gov­ern­ment, spe­cial inter­est groups, the media and the pub­lic all expect you to help clean up the state’s water resources.

If farm­ers don’t do this on their own, there will be fed­eral and state laws and reg­u­la­tions that will man­date how you farm.

That is why you’re receiv­ing this let­ter signed by nearly all of Ohio’s agri­cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions — to make it clear that farm­ers must take seri­ously their respon­si­bil­ity to man­age nutrients.”

Pro­chaska echoed these feel­ings, say­ing, “Ohio water resource qual­ity has been dimin­ished by cyanobac­te­ria. Sol­u­ble phos­pho­rus from agri­cul­tural fields is a con­tribut­ing fac­tor to this problem.”

And while farm­ers can talk all day about how they feel the real prob­lem in Ohio water qual­ity is from runoff into our streams, lakes and rivers from city/urban waste, the fact remains that farm­land runoff has been pointed to as a source of Ohio’s water prob­lems, and reg­u­la­tions will be address­ing those problems.

“The decline in water qual­ity has been linked to cer­tain agri­cul­tural prac­tices,” he said, and the phos­pho­rous loss into streams was con­sid­ered the main cul­prit. When this prob­lem came to Gov. John Kasich’s atten­tion in 2011, his response was sim­ple, “Fix it.”

And the three state agen­cies given the task of “fix­ing it”, the Ohio Depart­ment of Nat­ural Resources, the Ohio Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture and the Ohio Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency devel­oped in mid-2012 the “Ohio Clean Lakes Initiative.”

This ini­tia­tive includes guide­lines and reg­u­la­tions for farm­ers aimed at pro­tect­ing water quality.

Pro­chaska said farm­ers should start by fol­low­ing a list of “farm level” recommendations:

- Take soil tests and fol­low the fer­til­iza­tion rates found in the Tr-State Rec­om­men­da­tions and the OSU recommendations;

- Do not spread phos­pho­rous on frozen or snow-covered ground;

- As much as pos­si­ble incor­po­rate nutri­ents into the soil layer or onto the grow­ing crop at the oppor­tune time;

- Main­tain good nutri­ent appli­ca­tion records.

This is the right time, right place, right rate and right mate­r­ial method of keep­ing runoff from happening.

Pro­chaska said one of the biggest prob­lems are haz­ardous algae blooms, which can be found through­out Ohio, includ­ing Fayette County. These organ­isms pro­duce tox­ins in lakes and streams, and some of these tox­ins are haz­ardous to peo­ple, fish and ani­mals. The out­break of ill­nesses in Grand Lake St. Mary’s in 2011 was a defin­ing exam­ple of this problem.

Iron­i­cally, the drought of 2012 saw a dimin­ished prob­lem with the toxin algae that turns lakes green — lack of rain means a lack of water runoff. And phos­pho­rous runoff aids in the algae development.

Pro­chaska asked the area farm­ers at the recent sem­i­nar why sol­u­ble phos­pho­rous is now leav­ing Ohio farm fields. He said there were sev­eral rea­sons, includ­ing changes in crop rota­tion, less wheat grown, changes in tillage, P and K broad­cast spread in the fall and higher crop yields that leave greater residue on the soil.

In addi­tion, Pro­chaska rec­om­mended to farm­ers that they:

- Repair bro­ken sub­sur­face drainage;

- Treat con­cen­trated sur­face runoff areas;

- Con­struct wet­lands for treatment;

- Con­trol drainage;

- Look at alter­nate drain­ing ditch designs.

The bot­tom line for Ohio farm­ers was made clear — fol­low these rec­om­men­da­tions by the three state agen­cies to reduce runoff into the streams and lakes, or face manda­tory reg­u­la­tions in the future if the prob­lems persist.

(Gary Brock is edi­tor of ACRES of South­west Ohio.)

Posted by Tina Murdock on Feb 24 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.