water

Future of farming includes precision tech, smart use of ‘big data’

Modern farm machinery and unmanned aerial vehicles are opening new doors for the collection of valuable data to help growers improve production and the environment.

Modern farm machinery and unmanned aerial vehicles are opening new doors for the collection of valuable data to help growers improve production and the environment.

In the world of agriculture, having access to rich data sources about field conditions, weather patterns, pests and more can make a huge difference in the profitability and sustainability of Ohio farms.

The Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center is working with farmers, industry groups and state agencies to boost access to and analysis of field data gathered from new-generation farm machinery, satellite data and remote-sensing imagery captured by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

“Data can support farmers’ management decisions, for example how much nitrogen should be applied to corn and whether or when a fungicide needs to be used,” OARDC and Ohio State University Extension precision agriculture specialist John Fulton said. “But all this enormous amount of data needs to be gathered and provided quickly for farmers to make the best use of it.”

A key goal of Fulton’s work is to create a repository that will then be made available to growers in a user-friendly manner to help them make data-driven decisions.

ESSENTIALS

The enhanced use of precision farming technology and “big data” analysis can benefit the agricultural industry and society in three key areas.

  • Economy: Providing remote-sensing imagery and other types of data to growers and their crop consultants can help growers make more efficient use of fertilizers and other expensive inputs, thus lowering costs.
  • Environment: Reducing fertilizer and agrochemical applications benefits the environment, protecting water, pollinators and other valuable natural resources.
  • Research: Developing an extensive data repository can help university scientists save time in their research projects and develop innovative recommendations to assist both farmers and the environment.
More: fabe.osu.edu/precisionag

Project works to improve Ohio water quality, one farm at a time

Long after Toledo’s water supply was cut for days in August 2014, researchers such as Jay Martin have continued to work to improve water quality throughout Ohio. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)

Long after Toledo’s water supply was cut for days in August 2014, researchers such as Jay Martin have continued to work to improve water quality throughout Ohio. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)

Field to Faucet was conceived by The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. The college invested $1 million toward the effort after dangerous microcystin levels in Lake Erie shut down Toledo’s water supply for two days in August 2014.

Headed by Jay Martin, an ecological engineer in the college, Field to Faucet seeks to ensure safe drinking water while maintaining an economically productive agricultural sector. The goal is to reduce nutrient runoff and protect downstream ecosystems and water quality, helping farmers increase crop yields at the same time.

The initiative involves researchers from multiple colleges within Ohio State, as well as from other Ohio universities. Current research projects supported by Field to Faucet include a tri-state, cost-share program to help protect water quality in Ohio’s Western Lake Erie Basin, as well as the development of a weather-risk-management tool to warn farmers of impending storms to help lessen the risk of runoff from nutrient application.

“There continues to be pressure on farmers to be good stewards of our water resources,” said Scott Beck, president of Beck’s Hybrids, a partner on Field to Faucet. “Beck’s and the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences are conducting joint research to monitor water quality in different cropping scenarios over time. We are also looking at other agronomic studies such as fertilizer utilization and tile spacing.”

Essentials

Field to Faucet projects currently underway include:

  • Developing an app for farmers to record nutrient application rates and methods.
  • Developing a controlled-access, geospatial-data warehouse that allows producers and researchers to secure and share publicly available data.
  • Finding ways to best remove phosphorus and nitrogen from manure and anaerobic digester discharge before the materials are applied to fields. This effort will especially benefit the watershed around Grand Lake St. Marys in western Ohio.
  • Using unmanned aerial vehicles to provide real-time data on concentrations of microcystin created by harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie; and developing a sensor to detect real-time concentrations of microcystin in the lake.

Learn more about Field to Faucet here.

4-H water projects are making a splash in Ohio, around nation

OSU, CFAES, 4-H, AG Innovators Experience

Ohio 4-H is leading efforts to help youths gain a deeper understanding of one of the most vital 21st century concerns: assuring access to fresh, clean water.

Water is rising in prominence in Ohio 4-H youth development activities.

In the Water Windmill Challenge, teams create mock-ups of wind-operated water supply systems.

“There are many possibilities of how to meet the challenge,” said creator Bob Horton, Ohio 4-H specialist. “If their structure fails, students quickly want to reinvent it. They don’t realize it, but this activity introduces them to engineering.”

 In Ways of Knowing Water, a project idea starter for individual 4-H members, activities help youths sharpen awareness about their local watershed and where their household water originates.
Meera Nadathur, 15, of Hamilton County, took the Ways of Knowing Water project and plans to study environmental sciences in college
“With 4-H, you get to actually experience what you’re learning
about,” she said. “You don’t just learn by reading about it. It really enhances the whole experience.”

In a new idea starter, Field to Faucet: Nutrients, Sediment and Water Quality, activities focus on preventing harmful algal blooms. Co-author and 4-H educator Jackie Krieger said, “For many around the world who have little access to fresh, clean water, we owe our best science and dedicated action to understanding this basic human need. Who knows what spark might be ignited in the minds of 4-H members by these activities?”

ESSENTIALS

OSU Extension’s 4-H STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education program is making a mark regionally and nationally by developing projects including:

  • The Water Windmill Challenge. In 2015, nearly 10,000 youths in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Wisconsin participated in this challenge as part of the 4-H Ag Innovators Experience, sponsored by the National 4-H Council and Monsanto.
  • The Fish Farm Challenge, which was named as the 2014 4-H Ag Innovators Experience. More than 8,000 youths engineered a system to evenly dispense soy-based fish food pellets in an aquaculture tank.
  • The 4-H National Youth Science Experiment, the world’s largest youth-led science experiment. Ohio 4-H created the activities used in this program in 2008 and 2012.

More: go.osu.edu/oh4hsci

Working to protect Columbus’ drinking water — while also managing costs

Hoover Reservoir is a major source of water for Columbus. The 20 billion-gallon impoundment lies in a rapidly growing area north of the city. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)

Hoover Reservoir is a major source of water for Columbus. The 20 billion-gallon impoundment lies in a rapidly growing area north of the city. (Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)

High nitrate levels at a Columbus water plant last year led to a two-week, no-drink advisory for pregnant women and infants younger than 6 months old.

Preventing such problems drives the city of Columbus’ new, in-development Watershed Master Plan.

Consultancy CDM Smith leads the effort with help from, among others, specialists from Ohio State University Extension.

Myra Moss and Joe Bonnell, plus faculty emeritus Bill Grunkemeyer, are helping the firm identify and prioritize agricultural activities in the Scioto River, Big Walnut Creek and Alum Creek watersheds that could impact water reaching the city’s water plants.

Protecting Columbus’ watersheds “will help control treatment and reservoir operation costs and reduce risks in delivering safe drinking water,” said Julie McGill, water resources engineer with CDM Smith.

“The fewer contaminants entering the water plants,” said Bonnell, Extension’s watershed management program director, “the less technology — and money — required to remove those contaminants.”

Moss, Bonnell and Grunkemeyer have unique expertise in water issues, sustainable planning and consensus building.

“OSU Extension brings deep, unique experience in working with the agricultural community, developing comprehensive plans and delivering educational programs aimed at changing public behavior,” McGill said. “This lets them reach out to farmers and other stakeholders with simple, straightforward dialogue that can change mindsets.”

Essentials

  • Columbus’ Watershed Master Plan stands to benefit 1.1 million central Ohioans by safeguarding their drinking water sources and spending their water revenues wisely.
  • Columbus’ main drinking water sources, the Scioto River and Big Walnut Creek, receive runoff from 1,200-plus square miles of land, 72 percent of which is agricultural, before reaching the city’s Dublin Road and Hap Cremean water plants.
  • Runoff of fertilizer from farmland can be a major source of nitrates in the Scioto River.
  • Other challenges when treating Columbus’ water include atrazine, a weed killer; Cryptosporidium, a protozoan sometimes in manure runoff and failing septic systems; and phosphorus from fertilizer, which can contribute to harmful algal blooms.

Learn more about the city’s watershed planning here.

How youth can dive into science of water

Two Ohio 4-H projects — one available now, the other in 2016, both based on hands-on learning — focus on water’s importance. (Photo: Digital Vision.)

Two Ohio 4-H projects — one available now, the other in 2016, both based on hands-on learning — focus on water’s importance. (Photo: Digital Vision.)

Meera Nadathur, 15, wants to work in environmental sciences.

As a step toward that goal, the student at Cincinnati’s Sycamore High School last year completed Ohio 4-H’s Ways of Knowing Water project. It and some 200 other projects for Ohio 4-H members stress science and hands-on learning.

“One of my favorite experiences was visiting the Greater Cincinnati Water Works treatment plant to learn the entire drinking water purification process,” she said. “I was able to view every step of the process firsthand and gain knowledge about it from the very experts who ran the plant.”

A member of the Gorman Farm 4-H Club, Nadathur was one of the more than 200,000 youth ages 5-19 who participated in Ohio 4-H in 2014. Some 18,000 other Ohioans, including Nadathur’s club’s adviser, Cindy Capannari, helped as volunteers.

The organization, which is Ohio State University Extension’s youth development program, celebrated Ohio 4-H Week March 8-14. OSU Extension is the outreach arm of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.

Exploring water is especially timely given last year’s crisis in Toledo, said Joe Bonnell, OSU Extension’s program director for watershed management and one of the project’s developers. Last August, toxins from a Lake Erie algal bloom led that city to ban tap water use for three days.

Changes in climate, weather and land use, among other things, are more and more affecting Ohio’s rivers, lakes and streams, he said.

“I think the youth who complete this project will gain a greater appreciation for the value of water in their lives and communities, which hopefully will lead them to taking an active role in protecting their local water resources,” he said.

Read the full story …

Showing the benefits of tearing down dams: Healthier rivers, cleaner water

John Navarro poses along a restored stretch of the Olentangy River in Columbus. Removing a nearby obsolete dam helped key the restoration.

John Navarro poses along a restored stretch of the Olentangy River in Columbus. Removing a nearby obsolete dam helped key the restoration.

Tear down a dam, and a river will change. But how? And how much? To find out, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center scientists are looking in their own backyard.

Mazeika Sullivan and Kristin Jaeger are studying the impacts of dam removals at two former dams in Columbus: one on the Olentangy River on The Ohio State University’s Columbus campus, and another close by on the Scioto River. They’re documenting the exact changes seen in the rivers’ flow, biology and water quality.

“There’s a growing trend toward using dam removal to restore rivers, but studies documenting the rivers’ responses are limited,” said Sullivan.

“It’s logical to assume that removing a dam and restoring a river back to its natural state would provide an ecological boost,” said study sponsor John Navarro, program administrator with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife. “But until now, there have been few studies that quantify these benefits.”

Essentials 

  • Ohio has removed 60-plus dams in the past four decades, in large part to improve water quality.
  • A recent low-head dam removal project in Northeast Ohio, for example (not connected to the OARDC study), led to a previously impaired section of the Cuyahoga River meeting Ohio Environmental Protection Agency water quality standards within just six months — with fish diversity going up by 57 percent.
  • Dam removal cools a river’s water — about 6 degrees Fahrenheit in a previous study in Michigan — and restores its natural temperature range.
  • The improved water flow from dam removal keeps sediment from building up. Dam sediment can be full of accumulated toxins, including health threats such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
  • Sullivan and Jaeger’s research is partly funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Said Navarro, “The partnership between Ohio State and the ODNR Division of Wildlife, through the Ohio Biodiversity Conservation Partnership, supports the research being conducted by Mazeika and Kris, and will provide concrete evidence of the benefits of dam removals.”

More: go.osu.edu/RiverRestoration

Backed by research, educating farmers on best ways to protect water quality

Adam Sharp’s boots are firmly on the ground when it comes to farming and protecting water: He is also a farmer in Fairfield County.

Adam Sharp’s boots are firmly on the ground when it comes to farming and protecting water: He is also a farmer in Fairfield County.

In summer 2014, Lake Erie and Grand Lake St. Marys, among others, again suffered harmful algal blooms. An ongoing problem in recent years, the blooms are mainly caused by excess phosphorus runoff, including fertilizer and manure from farms. And Ohio State University Extension — teaming with state agencies and Ohio farmers — is delivering crucial science-based educational programs to put new solutions to work.

As a latest example, OSU Extension specialists, tapping into ongoing research by their college, are developing and will provide the fertilizer certification training required by Ohio’s new nutrient management law, Senate Bill 150. Other efforts include teaching nutrient management sessions at Ohio’s yearly Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference, and updating nutrient recommendations — also based on college research — for growers of the state’s major crops.

In these and other programs, “Extension takes the scientific view,” said Greg LaBarge, OSU Extension agronomy field specialist. “We take the emotion out and develop solutions that meet both environmental and economic needs.”

Essentials

  • Harmful algal blooms produce toxins that can sicken people and animals. Beach closings, expensive-to-treat or unsafe drinking water (as happened in summer 2014 in Toledo) and lost tour-ism revenue all can result.
  • The drinking water for more than half the people in Ohio comes from lakes and other surface water at risk from harmful algal blooms.
  • OSU Extension teams up on its water quality efforts with the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, Ohio Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, among others.
  • OSU Extension specialists, for example, taught water-protecting practices to 900 participants — including 400 Certified Crop Advisers responsible for more than 3 million acres — at last year’s Conservation Tillage and Technology Conference. That acreage is equal to nearly a quarter of all the cropland in Ohio.

“Farmers are committed to protecting and improving our waters,” said Adam Sharp, vice president of public policy, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. “But they need help through information-sharing, learning opportunities and education on the latest research and best nutrient management practices.

“OSU Extension is a key partner in providing these valuable services.”

More: go.osu.edu/NutrientStewardship