New Water Quality Grant Pours in More Research Dollars for Nutrient Management
According to a July 14 story by Ohio Ag Net & Ohio’s Country Journal, Extension specialists with the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University will use more than $1 million in new funding to help farmers develop nutrient management plans and to assist fertilizer service providers gain certification in a national nutrient stewardship program.
The initiative — funded by $531,000 in grant money and $531,000 in local cash matches from various agencies and industry groups — targets Ohio’s western Lake Erie watershed, home to rich agricultural land dedicated to field crop production and an important source of nitrogen and phosphorus that can affect the lake’s water quality downstream, said Greg LaBarge, Ohio State University Extension field specialist for agronomic systems and co-leader of Ohio State’s Agronomic Crops Team.
The first part of the project is the result of a cooperative effort funded by the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, the Ohio Soybean Council, the Ohio Small Grain Marketing Program, the Ohio Corn Marketing Program and OSU Extension, with additional support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. It involves working with growers to develop nutrient management plans for their farms, including the Phosphorus Index calculation, which helps them identify fields with a high potential risk of phosphorus movement to nearby waters downstream. Too much phosphorus can affect water quality in the basin, fueling the growth of harmful algal blooms.
The second part of the project involves working with agricultural nutrient service providers who deliver nutrient recommendation, nutrient application services or both to farmers so they can achieve certification in the voluntary 4R Nutrient Stewardship Certification Program— which encourages farmers to use the right fertilizer source, at the right rate, at the right time, with the right placement.
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