PERU — Some experimental drainage tile practices hosted at a local dairy farm hope to yield productive measures for area agriculture.
A working dairy farm in Peru has hosted tile-drainage research trials since 2016. Those trials have now evolved to include side-by-side trials utilizing two fields of the same soil type, specifically poorly draining silt loam.
The trials will provide data on how specific cropland management practices impact water quality stewardship.
This research is funded by the farmer-driven Northern New York Agricultural Development Program. Miner Institute Nutrient Management Researcher Laura Klaiber is the project leader.
Klaiber is evaluating three different cropping practices to characterize their combined effect on water quality:
Tile drainage helps support corn production on poorly draining soils.
No-till practices over time help improve the soil structure in previously heavily-tilled fields.
Cover crops filter surface and ground water, add organic matter to the soil, reduce weeds, and sequester carbon in the soil.
Fall-planted cover crops provide a winter covering and can hold nutrients during spring snow melt. The new NNYADP research is collecting data on the combination of these practices.
Until 2023, at the farm site hosting the trials, one field was tiled, one untiled. Data generated from the field tiled in 2023 will be compared to its own seven-year untiled dataset and to the data from its sister field that was first tiled in 2016. The farmer is applying the same cropping practices to both fields going forward.
The data sets include measures of nitrogen and phosphorus, total surface and subsurface runoff, and total suspended solids as an indication of soil erosion. The data will be correlated with local storm events.
Agronomist Mike Contessa of Champlain Valley Agronomics in Peru, is a project collaborator. Contessa said that the research is essential for, “showing how we can adopt better farming practices while minimizing nutrient loss and improving water management. By closely monitoring how tile drainage, no-till systems, and cover crops work together, we can create more resilient, environmentally-friendly farming systems that benefit both producers and the environment.”
Klaiber will present an update on this research at the November 10-13, 2024 join meeting of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America in San Antonio, Texas.
“A broad range of audiences, including agricultural producers, water resource managers, and the public, is interested in learning about how the ways we manage our land influence how nutrients and sediment moves through soil, surface water, and ground water,” Klaiber said.
“This first phase of the new research in northern New York is looking at whether specific farming practices are achieving the intended environmental quality benefits. Our field trials provide the opportunity to compare data sets on nutrient retention and egress from untiled land, previously tiled land, and, now, from previously-untiled land with newly-installed tile.” .
The desired benefits reduce the loss of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, from tiled fields into nearby waters.
The next report on this NNYADP agricultural environmental research will be posted in the spring of 2025 at nnyagdev.org. Previous trial reports are also posted there.
The NNYADP also has cover crop variety and breeding selection trials underway to develop a cover crop most well suited to northern climate regions with shorter growing season, harsh winters, and unpredictable weather in the spring planting and fall harvesting windows.
Funding for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program is supported by the New York State Legislature through the New York State Assembly and administrated by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.