MSU Extension Field Crops

I want to welcome everyone to Michigan State University Extension two thousand eight hundred feel crop's weapon our series My name is Jim S. led by I'm with Michigan State University Extension I speaking to you from Eunice in Michigan where I'm housed. And I'm I'm hosting this first program tonight I want to just mention a couple of details this women are and the remaining five webinars in the series have all been approved for one pesticide applicator certification at least certification present and we will be providing that information to you how to go about getting that credit for your research education at the end of the program I want to introduce him at this time Dr esan Ghani is an assistant professor. With an emphasis on agricultural drainage he said that the partment of bio systems Agricultural Engineering and the an issue College of Agriculture and Natural Resources ace on his side. He's not completely new anymore then with that said I'm a shoe far off a full year haven't joined us in January of two thousand and seventeen he completed his Ph D. degree at Ohio State and a post doctorate at the University of Minnesota thank you Jim So welcome everybody toured this web in our rectum introduced me fairly new my previous serial work was because children it mainly focused on control damage on which you bioreactors in Ohio and Minnesota. And here in Michigan now being continuing to enjoy it in its war. So I'll be sharing with you some some of the general. Areas in conservation drainage so a quick outline of the presentation I'll go through a history need for drainage environmental impact and finally the main topic conservation trainer are who are there different types of all these practices and explaining those. So all in Michigan. The first comprehensive train law was passed in eight hundred thirty nine that's two years after Michigan was found there. And following the US the federal government asked song and acts it in forty nine hundred fifty that vicinity did encourage more joining or swamp land to make more habitable regions in this war against is from Michigan so as far as that I want to be sure I think they're all from Michigan. So here there's a drainage you can see using our own power horse and human too it's to be a certain strain then came the steam powered machinery so they could help. Experience the surface drains Following that came the internal combustion engine again this is another photo from Michigan. This is an all or for all of the surface Jane that was installed constructed in one nine hundred fourteen in the photo was taken in one nine hundred seventy two. So you can see two people standing there song so what is your service train you to see needed. To convert the swamp lands into habitable areas in terms of subsurface drainage the fourteenth and fifteenth century the first horseshoe clay tile was made in France and it was your brain it's the subsurface of the field a sort of profile. And these are photos of the installation and so it was a very. Time consuming process sometimes it would take you up to two years or three years doing star in C.V.. And then following that came the machinery that helped lay the clay into the trench and this is a full of all I miss you farms from the feel good that. The drainage contractors had Act Then in one nine hundred fifty five. And today we have G.P.S. equipped. Trying to our so on you can see the why it is a perforated plastic tubing that is getting installed. So it's moved from being a very slow process to a very fast process these days just to recap anything we know the history chance to see here the left. Appears from eight hundred ninety eight to nine hundred twelve in the period of fifty years on average we have fifty eight miles of K. tile installed Curry year but let's go five years later nine hundred thirteen to one hundred seventy you see two hundred and twelve miles of tunnel where install tree year there was a huge a jump in the insulation of clay time back then after it was imported from. Europe so. And we then had the benefit of that we have known this study was crappy and that's why I. Mentioned farmers they drain both out of the store so here you can see a four older man standing in a tile genteel and wandered around so this is a this is something that we have known and there's another Oracle from the trades Roit interest free press eight hundred eighty that praises the course for Jane it's where tile saw. Though as time has gone by every year we've had more. Drainage subsurface journeys going into the land emission so every year we either. I have a feeling that's non-germane he gets training as a farmer wants to invest in their field get their crop production orders plain and then they go with the plastic every time and then they add to it so there can be an engine play or they have random tile or a tile and then they just go. Into a pair of system fit for a plastic tube so this map. Shows the lower end insula it doesn't show that you are a gem so. You can see two point three million acres or I of course will train it and twenty nine percent or the top up on this train but after Remember this is a two thousand and seven estimate so these numbers. Are going to be greater today so what I wanted to show you the density of Southwest chain saw incident density is about where the second a bay is is flowing its second away and then the other greater density is in this area where the water flows into western Lake Erie. And we. We are we've heard about the water quality problems that they've been having with their profoundly and algae producing toxins and can come in the water drinking water supply but these areas are the hot spots for phosphorous so why you know why is this we're having water quality impairments in this area and some in this area well for the art we need to the Cock they journeyed water cycle so there are two ways general generally there are two pathways for water a new chance to run off so there's one this component here it's called surface runoff. And through the one nine hundred ninety S. and two thousands of conservation practices have gone in these used to the edge of a strip and others that have how to choose sort. Erosion reduced so erosion reduced the particulate phosphorus from going off the field so we've done really well with this and we've reduced the erosion but recently lot of attention has gone on drainage discharge its components here right here so because we've seen a lot of the new chance in soil you will form leaving the field going into the drainage ditch or stream river and then ending up with John stream water bodies like with an eerie or this I cannot pay or other water water bodies so this is now the major focus now terms of. Doing research in New Jersey well enough. So talk about that more in the know in West and even start for the show you. Recent real imagery from. The Monster Worldwide Jency here. This is a I'm going off and I have a photo for every day after September fifteenth until September twenty fifth basically the days that the you know it wasn't cloudy psychotic or that image so and want to go forward take a look how their house moves take a look algae slowly moving towards a Canadian shore and this is the last four or so. Out she is happening and in certain conditions when those are mad then they can produce more toxins and it can be problematic because we should have because the change in one supply of Toledo and more also on Michigan too. So that's a problem so what can we do. Because we're hearing over time there is a shared history is that in over time the certain strain first we put in subsurface drainage and we're putting more and more of that unit in place and changing their ideology of the landscape with China with the subsurface drainage or on the other hand the chanters say we war drain the field because having. To stay in a proper Dutch Air economical proper action is impossible without having a sort of floor with a man standing so we've known that from for many years so we have to manage the system the change the. Way of these conservation practices that we can help so we can help the water improve the water quality so only take means in field conservation you may have heard of these practices or for our approach crops other practices theirs were not to stage ditches. There's edge of feel system conservation training which So basically we have a structured data sheet bioreactor Bosphorus filter injury cycling. And then we have optimizing drainage system again it's a conservation practice action trolled dreams. You may have heard of control Jane age because that research has done a lot of there's been a lot of research on control change and I will talk about that later on. So. The thing to remember. Here is that none of a single conservation practice simple management tool here on this list or in addition to this this will not solve the problem so there is no silver bullet can just create say. Like for our approach. In that I am going to have I'm going to have solved the water quality so there's a combination of these things that were turned in how. We improve the water quality also improve the soil health at the same time. So let's let's see what the definition what we call conservation change so conservation drainage. Is optimizing the drainage system for crop production water quality hundred water quantity so it has to it has to be optimized so it can't match you know it can't help it crop production in general want to quality and also want quantity. Know if there should be no adverse effects on there are safe I do have a concert or I don't want to cause analysis of eczema Nevers. It has to be convenient and cost effective so it has to be is that he Simple have to do just be very complex as reasonable as to be cost effective and it's not completely consummated there has to be some kind of course share program encourage producers. To implement these practices and also. This is important to it has to have no degrees engine is your vision see what I mean that the system the jury system has to do its main purpose of removing the water because we need to produce crops we can just let the water stay in there and times across that work if I the whole purpose of conservation is so it has to have no decrease in Janus efficiency and no decrease in Janey's efficiency exhaust to or cause a rule of drainage which says. Rain only the amount of war or that is necessary for crop production and not a drop more is what I was taught in the previous life so we know it to be you don't want to decrease Asians or so or crop production we will Jennifer so that we have the necessary Munawar removed for crop production and while we're not. We don't have any crops in the field of that during the non-green season there and we don't want to drain the field but there's no need for crop production then so as a golden rule of grain is and this rule again leads are us to our first conservation a practice that we want to discuss is controlled drainage. So what's controlled drainage is basically you can join it is my aging out of elevation or out of that wall of the drainage system so we can manage how much water is discharged from the drainage system and the primary purpose of this change this time is to reduce Nugent delivery to downstream water bodies and surface water. And. The research that has shown it has shown that this practice control genital warts for both nitrogen comes in a form of nitrate and also phosphorus that we really can mainly. Concerned about in Michigan so so on the conventional Jane and so let's say this is a side the you or the profile of the soil that's the drainage ditch is the crown has been harvested for example so it's going to rain. And water was going to build now and then. The notions that are Sandy will in that water because as war is moving they're going to move with that who are now an indigenous that and then they're going to end up in places like Western educated. And so. And then they cause those animals environmental effects agro growth. Toxin production so this is conventional Jenna's but under controlled drainage Yeah and this is the same time but then with the difference that we have office or a structure near out there near the church and then the structure we put who are so stop blocks and then we we manage it so the top of the poor's will have one foot of space between the top trend the ground surface so it's back when it rains. Want to build the ark behind a structure so we're basically reducing the amount of water that leaves the field and then the nutrients are in the field because we're just in the water so are we reducing the amount of no chance to run off so from all of their emotions here I'm showing only some of it most will that war because we're getting a lot of water in the field even out of the nutrients or sing so when she the water will flow through Larose patients no legal through the preferred have or this soil rather than went through the child really quickly. So this is basically the practice of controlled drainage. This is a diagram of control drainage it shows this practice during the growing season so he joined the bring seas and see the crop here. We managed to how to live edition at the edge of the field to about one and a half sheet you know the ground surface who are going to have to to hit it ending on the experience of the producer and how much. Her comfortable the producers to managing this closer to this to the grounds are so basically doing this the NALEO during the growing season if it rains it cause we have the elevation raised the water will slowly build up behind us and we can see our draw on the water level and our own provides water for the roots and the crabs basically so. There's If you didn't have this that fear will change quickly the less water will be available for the crops so this keeps that war in there with the crops So there's potential of proper benefit for control drainage. This is the other scenario. This is after harvest so if you remember each and see this through ensures the elevation higher and closer to the ground surface I want to actually see. Because this is one have to true. And this is one foot below the ground surface so it's the diagram strain that is closer saw this is not joining an ongoing season so I don't need to change the field as much I think like the point is well there's crack in the field so I'm reducing that discharge and I'm cheating that water goes back to the who are trained it so when you're not having a crop production Don't try and if it don't bring a few last March so we live in this one for pillar answer for us and of keeping the water with those phosphorus nutrients are actually in that water so the water has to move through is very slow asked the lateral see to show the soil and eventually find its way to. Places with higher had water drainage ditch. So design consideration for control genetics works best when I got this highlight it was a got this board so works best on relatively nice seal so if you have my TENS of a percent or less this would work really well. So we need one control structure what every one and a half feet of elevation rise from the saw from here if you want to have feet so if one and a half of the emission rises about here I'm sure you will need to put another way the structures of you have less not that's why I say just it works best under nearly flat fields is if this is nearly flat the unit warned to manage the water through the entire feel if this is not so flat then you need one of these structures at point X. just for. It also work works with greater slopes but there's impact on prop it like a set so if if you are going to slow and the chapel the one it charges then the area that's gonna be influencing their crop is going to be a part here imagine you are feel is to kill it and the more the space or the water I can see it's going about here it's going to be ruther going to have a really horrible here so it will be part of the feel that's not one have that water so that's why we have we have Mr Richmond putting a series of The One and half feet and the. Terms of going back to what I showed you before optimizing the tree in each system so that if the drainage system is decided. Based on that after my station of using controlled unit at some point in time then that is I'm used to put a drainage laterals on contra so we can have better management. Greater importance in the feels. But why controls and basically no land is the human reproduction is the structure box is at the edge of the Theodore is looming tells everybody requires management for example producer is has an intent of getting crappier which obviously it will be interesting insurance benefit there is this structure and box it's going to need a little bit more management. It can be just the structures put the stoppers in there and just leave it needs management's. Research has shown that this which is neutral last saw our vision should note is actually on average is forty eight percent. And others saw you reacted faster so in Michigan this is our main interest so you will react if thought so subtle it wasn't loaded that Sharon is the past fifty seven percent right there only one full of studies at a distance to study is. Over to correct this will really be viewing our lips Sherm found that there's only two studies that were. Looked at so we actually fosters loaded action when they use control drainage when they tip thirty two conventional free treatment there is a really in the number of studies out there who are in Michigan. And who are people on doing some research on solar energy force presence see how controlled and in neutral no reduction feels in on on foreign reserves here in Michigan and this practice has potential to grow to improve crop year old but you have to have proper management of stop logs and also going to have to have the rainfall that comes at the right time well example looking at this image. I have some news on and then the crowd really needs water it's for example it's July and. And then it doesn't dream so no matter where I have just not stop like if I have it all into the service I have it down there it's normal Americans there is no warrant or. Even. And also the proper management from Leeds they have a pension of four improved from here. So I thought about the control training so I'm moving on socially questions peacefully no question too I'm a section where the controller is I'm going to move on to the saturated office. So in a saturated buffer basically my logic nice Yes this is kind of very similar to the control agenda which is of the diagram you see so the name typings water from the laterals into a structure again in the field and I have a box structure here where I have Starbucks in there some phrasing out elevation and and just like control Janet and then I have carefully rated Lateralus perforated distribution pipes that or in scientists soil below the ground surface just like the laterals so he has bowls below the ground surface and of course along the length of the ditch in both directions and as the water moves in those election water leaves to the prefer ration of this are still only seeps through the soil they when she only finds its way to the drainage ditch and. On this side so on one of those who is on flows into the system and I thought has benefits for water quality. So so the main purpose of the saturated buffer is used not to literally hand because the water here on trillions here so the water moves to the soil. The actual target is nitrate and basically nitrogen because nitrate moves with the water along the length of the day it flows out and seeps through this soil and so it provides perfect eery a teenage friends bacteria and mother and through that process of the ninety change and the Niger gets converted into mostly nitrogen gas and leaves out so the land certainly has less tree concentration. And because this practice has been down in other Midwestern states their main focus has been our nitrate in Michigan and we're more concerned. We want to focus on phosphorous but it so this pattern has potential for Fosse. Fosse first moves through the soil gets absorbed to soil particles and if there aren't If there is a force west up caking plant that is in the buffer strips. Then data chanting which are a lot of that phosphorus and if that's harvested thing we can to move the process and use it for other purposes and also it's going to built into Georgia so if you look I know quite a controlled and so water is raised there are it's slowed down and the water has to go about this lot so some of the water will flow through. Land or seepage into the system through the control so it's a combination of like controlled drainage and as a saturated buffer. This is a top view of a saturated buffer can see. Water going to the same structure that I showed you and then of course to these distribution pipes and then those steps to the store on the right in this case you have visitation here entries at an Arctic some monstrous. So the design considerations who are such a buffer first we have to have it we have to have a buffer ship available you know could have grass trees or other vegetation here that cannot take some of those neutrons at least so at least thirty feet wide and well established again that's the buffers ship so it is has to be from here to here has to be at least thirty feet and has to weigh establish. Any erosion so there is actual digitization in there and then the length of the distribution pipes has to be at least two hundred feet down so that there's loss there's together at least two hundred feet so it actually has. Potential to reach to carry water and is just as mentions in the water as if this is not sized long an awful lot of the water will just flow or this you know come out of the trial out and not much of it will go through the distribution pipes but we need to have sufficient Warry go through those distribution pipes to get treated. On to two feet of elevation change along the length of the buffer so from the SCRAM surface here it has to go up to true face of this cannot continue for any Miles it has to stop up to two feet and that's because of the stop not sitting in the structure because that's going to create a head ideally gradient for the water to wharf Sideways was the hard part a wire here would be higher here would be less to want to remove so because of the setting it can be more than two feet of elevation rise in both directions in either of these actions this story has to have at least two point one point two percent organic matter in the top two and a half feet of soil so it was so at odds with a small quantity test that and the reason for that is we want to how again it matter whether we're for the right area. Cation coming from nature. Also interesting that unknown teacher is deeper than eight inches so if there isn't. I mean eight feet if there is a drainage there's eight feet and there's. No answer for instance instability or that and the edge so we're trying to avoid bad and also we don't want to have any surface interest because if sediments come in and then we censor them and sideways we may start. Plugging the distribution finds a boy off with layers of sand or gravel or saw her taking will take a look at this so if they're asked underneath here if there's a gravel or sand layer here then that more is just going to find its way to the path of least resistance which is that on the ground there is going to should quickly seep through and can't find its way to the Cheney church rather than slowly growing seeping through this soil so we don't want to know any of. This is an important one so the field has to have some playwright and two percent at the edge of the feel. So it has to have a good amount of slope and by why is that I want to show you a illustration so this isn't about her it's nearly level field and this black circle here is the distribution pipes are decision pipes on to be perpendicular to the screen that eulogy now so when it rains water will build up and then water from the plaque this Russian president of open the door to the soil and then it's going to war with so. And this condition because it's such a buffer we don't want to move the structures stop an arc so we said the Stardust and the stars will remain in place so in this case we're kind of pushing the water back not the war in the field So in closing the crops and we don't want to do that in this case because we encounter this practice the stop loss are set and they remain and the system is basically designed based on the trade of this we don't want to influence the crop so this would be a suitable scenario where we when it rains and the two percent or very slow then you see am not no longer in a pot so it isn't the ideal condition which is. So as I said above and remove all research has shown effective nitric deduction basically amulet of if the person natural deduction phosphorous. There hasn't been much work done terms of period publications we haven't found anything so this is ongoing for phosphorous and there is potential for phosphorous remove the power for has education that turn up the phosphorous and we can use that as a source source of paralyzer or bio energy crops so there is potential and we're going to be looking at here. And the last one is there which is bio reactor so this is a would you pile reactors it's a transfer with what ships and then it should have a cover with or it could have which is all the way to the top and there's a three term potential structure with three chambers whichever one is for controlled energy to pass water comes in from the main pipe it flows into the second chamber and the second chamber water flows into the which are by reactor with what. And then the bioreactor because there woodchips are that organic or you know the carbon source the bacteria is guy talking for the nitrogen to most natural gas and then the water that is excessively capacitances the. Bioreactor then it flows over to the church a man having bypasses the system. So and then this is a top view of the same system you see water comes into the control structure faced first chamber from the second chamber war a move into which it bioreactor it's collected through each election comes out. The main function here removal process will be the unification process where the theory how convert ninety and touches it just so the main target obviously is nitrates I we've seen analyses of the leave per cent you may notice that is a little bit lower than the Georgian edge and that's because this is that is highly dependent on temperature because they're living organisms and they're the bacteria and the temperature when the temperature is low or they become dormant so then. The mobile becomes less when the temperature is caught. Thirty percent and it's installed in the battery straight in the grass area at the edge of the fear of I mentioned would be something between ten to thirty feet wide thirty to one hundred feet. Or so in Korea which is which are trained area is about one hundred eighty. Though. So why would you buy a reactor basically this practice has little or no land taken over the action since I think control change the structure the edge of the field generally and the area they can be covered by so you can see him to stagger his grass on top. So it has no maintenance but still requires management's solid state for a long ride if we speculate is going to be about fifteen to twenty years. It's compatible with control just like I said the first year we can be useful to hold free and age provide then surely crop yield benefit rather some reason it's rather intended to recycle trees either since either pathogens so those are a mix of during the war. So explain the reactor and so once the nutrients come from the nitrate and the phosphorus company which you Perry actor shouldn't come from the subsidies range system they flow into the wood chip by a reactor would you buy earth like you said to the process of the energy of Acacia. It removes the nitrogen person if there was a natural gas. And the idea that we had is that after the which is pirated we would for phosphorus filter take out phosphorous So the war that he needs to leave the system back to the change system has better quality of the wars of the train from the feel. This is a for sure you were trench this is the wood you do what chairs it's plastic lining this is in Ohio it's in Mercer County in Ohio so there was the main conspiracy because intelligence control structure gets the very into which it fired and then once it gets right it gets removed water flows into the another tranche where it has phosphorus. Has to start aggregate that Tenet store so we can see in the background that's where the. Wood chips which chips which by reactor is and the war I want to close with this system goes into this system so in a church in a war phosphorus or so it's opening of these two systems that can help you move these nutrients so we we've seen average results have been successful when you combine these processes are but a few test or stare so they're coming soon just coming so we will slowly see some of the results for the field test from these combining these practice the challenge with this phosphorous the longevity and the generic so it would get expensive to install and use phosphorus filters. So and also the longevity because eventually the phosphorus will attach to the surfaces on the serious side aggregates and it will fill those are we get saturated. Because they will have to be replaced. And last night would be change water recycling this is also on the research so basically when the war a constantly a system war a stored into a reservoir upon and then. During a time where the crop meets the water it just irrigated Baksh through centipede it or subsurface sorry geisha and into the feel so we keep some of the nutrients in the water here. And so it has one quality and water and probably a benefit so with that. My presentation is Don and I probably take questions thank you a soft. OK now we're done with the evaluation questions thank you very much for responding. I do apologize I was supposed to manage that but I'm just sort of locked out with a tranquilly. It's time for us now to give you an opportunity to request one pesticide applicator recertification credit for tonight's program and you can do that by. Going to the. To the U.R.L. or the the Internet link in blue there. On your screen and I have I have put it into the chat box. Also so you can go to your chat function and open up a chat and copy that U.R.L. and then paste it into your browser. And that should take you to a set of. Questions where they want your name and your Michigan has a site applicator certification number. Also which category you want to designate this credit toward If you're a farmer that would be private core if your commercial applicator it could either go into your commercial core category or your category one day which is feel crops. In past years we have asked you to send an email to one of our county extension offices and we have a person in that office who will fill out a bubble sheet for every single person and that's a lot of that's a lot of effort on her part she has to manage all those individual e-mails. And also. Fill out all the paperwork and this system using this online data collection allows her to to do that much more effectively efficiently.