Discovering New Ways to Bring You Water Quality Research A message from the Discovery Farms® Program T
hough we have only connected virtually with many of you in the past year, Discovery Farms® is working hard to bring you our latest research results on agriculture’s relationship to water quality. We know the work that goes in to each farming decision you make, and we put the same care into research and recommendations, and tailor our educational options so that you can apply knowledge and tools to your individual farming systems to protect and preserve our Wisconsin waters. The Discovery Farms Program is a part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension and it was established in 2001 on the foundation of farmer leadership, credible on-farm research and effective communication of results. We monitor water quality in a variety of ways including at surface edge-of-field runoff collection stations and tile drainage edge-of-field collection stations. We also have a nitrogen use efficiency project which aids farmers in their nitrogen management decisions. Soon, we will begin new projects to monitor groundwater quality.
Partnership Powers our Research
Fortunately, Discovery Farms was able to continue all of our research efforts in 2020 with the help of our local partners and Edge-of-field surface monitoring site in Kewaunee County.
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team of staff to ensure samples from monitoring stations were safely retrieved. In 2018, we began partnerships with Juneau County Land and Water Conservation, Kewaunee County Land Conservation and Ag Source Laboratories in Langlade County to collect water quality samples and complete monitoring site maintenance tasks in their respective counties. We are so grateful to our partners who kept all of our sites actively collecting Discovery Farms Partners in Juneau County data for our water performing site maintenance. quality and nitrogen use efficiency projects in 2020. Dustin Ladd and Sarah Fleck of the Juneau County Land and Water Resources Department perform sample collection and site maintenance at two edge-of-field monitoring stations. When asked what the most rewarding part of this project is, they answered “Seeing first-hand how conservation efforts in our watershed affect runoff. We have been surprised at how our sites compare to other sites throughout the state. When we installed the two sites I thought that we would see some pretty significant runoff/erosion with our slopes, and so far that hasn’t really happened.” We’ve seen this sentiment time and time again. It’s very hard to visualize the amount of runoff or soil and nutrient loss until it is quantified with results from a monitoring station. Models are helpful as an analysis of risks associated with certain practices or landscapes, but using local monitoring stations helps to zero in on the subtlety of agriculture’s impact on water quality. Local monitoring stations also create a lot of buzz and great discussion among landowners. As Chuck Bolte of Ag Source Laboratories who leads site maintenance efforts in Langlade County put it, “Growers are extremely interested in the results so far. This project has been great to accelerate the topic of soil health into a conversation with growers instead of a lecture, as it was in the past. My conversations with growers really show that they care about this long term and value this real data that we are creating here in their backyards.” One of our goals for 2020 and beyond was to continue to elevate the conversations about runoff and nutrient loss beyond one “perfect” solution or villainizing one practice or another. Discovery Farms data from Wisconsin and Minnesota show WISCONSIN FARM BUREAU FEDERATION
