Final report for WPDP19-10
Project Information
Every two years states are required to submit Water Quality Assessment Reports under Sections 305(b) and 303(d) of the Clean Water Act describing the condition of waters in the state. These reports include water quality information on rivers, lakes, estuaries, and coastal waters, and an analysis of the extent to which waters are meeting water quality standards (https://www.epa.gov/nutrient-policy-data/waters-assessed-impaired-due-nutrient-related-causes). The cooperating states on this project have reported that the % of assessed rivers that have a nutrient-related impairment range from 9 – 41 %, and % of assessed lakes/reservoirs that have a nutrient-related impairment range of 8 to 91 %. While not all impairment can be attributed to agriculture, agriculture does contribute.
The overall objective of this proposal is to utilize traditional outreach strategies to improve the understanding of agri-professionals in the Pacific and Mountain Northwest in regard to nutrient cycling and recycling, fate and transport of nutrients across multiple landscapes of agriculture, and food safety related to water irrigation management. The target audience will be professionals advising agricultural producers, including regional, state and local agencies including NRCS technical service providers. An emphasis will be placed on adoption of technology and building relationships which will result in the recycling of manure nutrients via crops and forages. This will be achieved by: 1) hosting a PNW regional conference that will focus on multiple aspects of nutrient capture, nutrient cycling, adoption of innovative technologies, developing relationships amongst agricultural industries for nutrient recycling, and 2) providing online informational resources (e.g. videos and written materials) about nutrient management. All materials will be available 24/7 (or on-demand access) to educators, consultants, advisors, teaching professionals and producers. The final target audience ultimately impacted by the project will be producer/growers of vegetable, grain crops, forages, dairy and beef.
The key difference of this project and a previously funded SARE project (EW00-011 – year 2000) is the integrated approach that will be utilized to create an awareness of opportunities for nutrient recycling across the landscape of livestock, forage, and crops. In addition, we will include a food safety component related to irrigation.
The primary objective is to utilize traditional outreach methods to improve the understanding of agri-professionals in the Pacific and Mountain Northwest in regard to nutrient cycling and recycling, fate and transport of nutrients across multiple landscapes of agriculture, and food safety related to water irrigation management.
Year 1: Identify ten (2 from each state) innovative projects that will be invited to present at the regional conference to promote adoption of practices that encourage resource stewardship. Possible topics include: technologies for capture and recycling of manure phosphorus and solids; carbon sequestering and storage, predicting nitrogen mineralization in organic farming systems; safe use of compost/manure for vegetable crops, role of tannins and carbohydrates on rate of gain, economics, and nutrient cycling in grazing systems; and irrigation management and food safety.
Year 2: Host a regional conference (Boise, ID) focused on nutrient cycling and recycling, fate and transport of nutrients, and food safety across multiple landscapes of agriculture.
Year 2: The conference audience will be surveyed to determine if they're more or less likely to promote the knowledge and practices presented at the conference.
The conference will include a tour component to demonstrate innovative techniques, technologies, or management approaches. Specific areas for education tracks include: compost utilization, soil health, current state of phosphorus management with the P-Index tool, use of manure and raspberries and vegetable crops, effect of manure stockpiling on nutrient leaching, multi-year compost rate and crop rotation with dairy manure, and fate and transport of nutrients and pathogens.
Cooperators
- (Educator)
- (Educator)
- (Educator)
- (Educator)
- (Educator and Researcher)
- (Educator and Researcher)
Education
Face to face conferences are an ideal method of educating and distributing information. The face to face conference approach will utilize traditional education outreach methods to improve the understanding of agri-professionals in the Pacific and Mountain Northwest in regard to nutrient cycling and recycling, fate and transport of nutrients across multiple landscapes of agriculture, and food safety related to water irrigation management.
Also, conference presentations will be recorded and posted for educational purposes post conference. Web based resources are of no cost to the user and easily accessible and convenient. Besides the face to face method of sharing knowledge, web based resources would also be available.
This conference will provide valuable information and resources about nutrient management, nutrient recycling, and food safety, and promotes better management options for professionals advising agricultural producers. Education from science based information and resources will prepare the PNW’s and MW’s land managers for the future by enabling them to adopt environmentally sound practices that are financially beneficial.
Education & Outreach Initiatives
The overall objective of the conference based education initiatives was to utilize traditional outreach strategies to improve the understanding of agri-professionals in the Pacific and Mountain Northwest in regard to nutrient cycling and recycling, fate and transport of nutrients across multiple landscapes of agriculture, and food safety related to water irrigation management.
Face to face conferences are an ideal method of educating and distributing information. The face to face conference approach will utilize traditional education outreach methods to improve the understanding of agri-professionals in the Pacific and Mountain Northwest in regard to nutrient cycling and recycling, fate and transport of nutrients across multiple landscapes of agriculture, and food safety related to water irrigation management.
Information and education provided through the conference is for agricultural professional advisers and educators assist producers in the PNW to have sufficient information to make better decisions by adapting regional strategies that will make their operations more interconnected from a nutrient cycling perspective while minimizing environmental impact.
The target audience was professionals advising agricultural producers, including regional, state and local agencies including NRCS technical service providers. An emphasis was placed on adoption of technology and building relationships which resulted in the recycling of manure nutrients via crops and forages.
Conference topics include: technologies for capture and recycling of manure phosphorus and solids; carbon sequestering and storage, soil health in regards to amendments from biological origin, predicting nitrogen mineralization in organic farming systems; safe use of compost/manure for vegetable crops, economics, and nutrient cycling in grazing systems; and irrigation management and food safety. Highlights will include specific education tracks focusing on: phosphorus and nitrogen movement in the agricultural landscape, safe use of compost for vegetable crop production, irrigation water quality and food safety (FSMA). Specific areas for education tracks include: compost utilization, soil health, current state of phosphorus management with the P-Index tool, use of manure and raspberries and vegetable crops, effect of manure stockpiling on nutrient leaching, multi-year compost rate and crop rotation with dairy manure, and fate and transport of nutrients and pathogens. A producer panel and case studies featured producer’s experiences with nutrient management, perspectives, conservation efforts and opinions about their operations. The conference included potential plans for future outreach efforts. The intent was to build on the regional network of advisers and educators and take the knowledge gained at the conference into action in the field.
The virtual Pacific Northwest and Mountain West Nutrient Management, Soil Health and Food Safety Conference featured seven sessions from October 27-29, 2020. The sessions included: The Nexus of Soil Quality and Water Quality; Pasture and Rangeland; Nutrient Recovery Technologies; Soil Quality and Nutrient Management; Compost, Biosolids and Chars; Nutrient Management, Cover Crops and Environmental Monitoring; and Food Safety.
All conference sessions and individual presentations were recorded and are posted to: https://extension.wsu.edu/pmwncfsc/conference-agenda/
Case studies from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah were developed into featured multimedia products. These multimedia projects were featured as part of the conference and are posted on the conference recordings webpage: https://extension.wsu.edu/pmwncfsc/conference-agenda/
Nutrient Management, Food Safety and Soil Health Case Study Multimedia projects :
Anaerobic Digesters in Utah: Smithfield Foods has recently installed anaerobic digesters at their swine production facility in Milford, UT. This operation converts the methane produced to a renewable natural gas.
Improving Organic Grazing Systems: View the work being conducted by several scientists at the Utah State University Intermountain Irrigated Pasture Research facility to improve organic dairy grazing systems. Research examines the use of grass-legume mixtures and their impact on rates of gain, nutrient cycling, reproduction, and economic returns.
Alternative Land Management Strategies for Land Receiving Manure and Lagoons in Idaho: The purpose of this video is to highlight the potential ways that cropping system management can help overcome nutrient management challenges faced by dairymen in southern Idaho. The video features an environmental consultant and a dairyman discussing cropping rotations and management strategies that can reduce soil nutrient accumulations by manure and lagoon water application
Use of Centrifuges for Dairy Manure Solid-Liquid Separation: This video showcases the use of centrifuge technology for secondary solid-liquid separation on two Idaho dairies.
Ammonia and Odor Reduction While Retaining Nutrients, a Dairy Producer Experience in Idaho: This video describes a southern Idaho dairy farmer's technology use, including dairy slurried manure application using a drag hose and subsurface injection system. It also highlights a pilot zeolite filter trial at his farm that resulted in significant ammonia and odors emission reduction from a dairy flush pit.
Increasing Cover Crop Diversity in Post Harvest Season: A Case Study in OSU-HAAREC :This video summarizes the use of cover crops in multiple cropping systems in Oregon.
Making the Nutrient Cycle Connection Between Dairy and Berry Farmers in Washington State: Berry growers in Whatcom County are finding that dairy manure is a good source of nutrients for production of raspberries.
Use of Dairy Compost on Eastern Washington Vegetable and Fruit Crops: Vegetable and fruit producers in Eastern Washington are finding that composted dairy manure is an excellent source of nutrients for their crops.
The intended impact from these initiatives was to help the agricultural professional advisers and educators assist producers in the PNW to have sufficient information to make better decisions by adapting regional strategies that will make their operations more interconnected from a nutrient cycling perspective while minimizing environmental impact.
The COVID 19 pandemic caused the platform of the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West Nutrient Management, Food Safety and Soil Health Conference from an in-person conference event to a virtual conference which increased participation and reach. Participants mostly registered from the Western Region: Washington (157), Oregon (79), Idaho (34), Montana (5), Utah (4), California (17) and British Columbia (10) with 1-4 participants from 43 other locations either states or countries (49 total). A survey was sent out to the participants after the virtual conference in which 54 participants responded out of 397 virtual conference attendees. When asked how participants learned about the conference, most participants found out about the conference through extension outlets (27) and colleagues (23). Participants registered for to the conference for the top three reasons: professional development opportunity (32), interesting subject (31) and also to learn more about a specific topic (26).
The overall level of skill and knowledge pre and post conference was measured in this survey as: poor, fair, satisfactory, very good and excellent. Participants mostly had a satisfactory (45%) and very good (32%) level of skill and knowledge before the conference. At the end of the conference, participants indicated that they had a very good (56%) and satisfactory (25%) level of knowledge. Furthermore, the survey results indicate that the virtual conference contributed to participants level of skill and knowledge at levels of very good (43%) and satisfactory (30%) and excellent (23%) levels.
Conference participants were asked what conference session topics that were presented that they found the most valuable. At the highest level (5) of value, participants found the topics of: nutrient management, cover crops and environmental monitoring (43%), soil quality and nutrient management (41%), nutrient recovery technologies (38%), compost, biochar, and chars (35%), nexus of soil quality and water quality (34%), pasture and rangeland (15%) and food safety (15%). Conference attendees found the following topics at the second highest level (4) of value: nexus of soil quality and water quality (49%), pasture and rangeland (43%), soil quality nutrient management (42%), nutrient management cover crops and environmental monitoring (38%), compost biochar and nutrient recovery technologies (22%) and food safety (18%). Participants found the topics are the third highest level of value to be: food safety (35%), pasture and rangeland (35%), nutrient recovery technologies (31%), compost, biosolids and chars (27%), nutrient management, cover crops and environmental monitoring (17%) and nexus of soil quality and water quality (17%). Conference attendees found the following topics at the second to the lowest level (2) of value: Food safety (20%), nutrient recovery technologies (7%), pasture and rangeland (4%) and compost, biosolids and char (2%) and nutrient management, cover crops and environmental monitoring (2%). Attendees listed that the following topic sessions be the least valuable (level 1): food safety (13%), compost, biosolids and car (6%), pasture and rangeland (2%) and nutrient recovery technologies (2%). The remaining three topic sessions: nexus of soil quality and water quality; soil quality and nutrient management; and nutrient management, cover crops and environmental monitoring were not mentioned in this lowest level of value.
Participants were asked to rate varying aspects of the conference management: content, organization and participation on five levels from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The majority of 54% agreed that the conference was well organized and planned. Fifty percent strongly agreed that the content was appropriate. Conference participants agreed (46%) that the conference was organized to allow the attendees to fully participate.
The virtual conference sessions were live during the last week of October 2020 where attendees could answer zoom polls during sessions. The Nexus of Soil Quality and Water Quality session had the most participants of all the conference sessions; 121 participants and 31 people completed the session poll. The majority (29) of session attendees preferred this type of virtual professional development (PD) conference to be held every year vs every other year (2) or every three years (0) participants. All participants in this nexus session would recommend the conference to others and from a 1-10 scale, an average of 8.2 found the session information of value to their profession.
Nineteen of the eighty one people present for the live Nutrient Recovery Technology session completed the zoom poll. Sixteen of those nineteen people were in favor of attending a virtual PD conference every year, 3 every other year and nobody voted on every 3 years. All participants in this nutrient recovery session would recommend the conference to others and from a 1-10 scale, an average of 7.9 found the session information of value to their profession.
In the food safety session, 29 people attended and 19 people completed the poll. Five people were in favor of this type of virtual professional conference to occur every year; 3 people were in favor of every year and 1 person voted for a 3 year option. All participants in the food safety session would recommend the conference to others and from a 1-10 scale, an average of 8.5 found the session information of value to their profession.
Eighteen people of the twenty one people who attended the Pasture and Rangelands session were interested in having a virtual professional development conference of this type every year. Two people in this session voted for this type of conference every year and only one person voted for a three year occurrence. All participants who responded in the Pasture and Rangelands session poll would recommend the conference to others and from a 1-10 scale, an average of 8 found the session information of value to their profession.
Of the 73 people in the Nutrient Management, Cover Crops and Environmental Monitoring Session, 9 people of the 18 who completed the live zoom poll would like to see this type of conference occur every year and two people would like to see it occur every other year. All participants who responded in the Nutrient Management, Cover Crops and Environmental Monitoring session poll would recommend the conference to others and from a 1-10 scale, an average of 8.2 found the session information of value to their profession.
Nine people of the seventy one people in the Char, Compost and Biosolids session responded to the live poll, would like to see this type of virtual professional conference occur year. No one voted in the live poll to see it occur every other year, or every three years. All participants who responded in the Char, Compost and Biosolids session poll would recommend the conference to others and from a 1-10 scale, an average of 8.1 found the session information of value to their profession.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Learning Outcomes
Project Outcomes
398 people registered for the virtual Pacific and Mountain West Nutrient Cycling, Soil Health and Food Safety Conference.
The intended impact from these initiatives was to help the agricultural professional advisers and educators assist producers in the PNW to have sufficient information to make better decisions by adapting regional strategies that will make their operations more interconnected from a nutrient cycling perspective while minimizing environmental impact.
The COVID 19 pandemic caused the platform of the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West Nutrient Management, Food Safety and Soil Health Conference from an in-person conference event to a virtual conference which increased participation and reach. Participants mostly registered from the Western Region: Washington (157), Oregon (79), Idaho (34), Montana (5), Utah (4), California (17) and British Columbia (10) with 1-4 participants from 43 other locations either states or countries (49 total). A survey was sent out to the participants after the virtual conference in which 54 participants responded out of 397 virtual conference attendees. When asked how participants learned about the conference, most participants found out about the conference through extension outlets (27) and colleagues (23). Participants registered for to the conference for the top three reasons: professional development opportunity (32), interesting subject (31) and also to learn more about a specific topic (26).
The overall level of skill and knowledge pre and post conference was measured in this survey as: poor, fair, satisfactory, very good and excellent. Participants mostly had a satisfactory (45%) and very good (32%) level of skill and knowledge before the conference. At the end of the conference, participants indicated that they had a very good (56%) and satisfactory (25%) level of knowledge. Furthermore, the survey results indicate that the virtual conference contributed to participants level of skill and knowledge at levels of very good (43%) and satisfactory (30%) and excellent (23%) levels.
Conference participants were asked what conference session topics that were presented that they found the most valuable. At the highest level (5) of value, participants found the topics of: nutrient management, cover crops and environmental monitoring (43%), soil quality and nutrient management (41%), nutrient recovery technologies (38%), compost, biochar, and chars (35%), nexus of soil quality and water quality (34%), pasture and rangeland (15%) and food safety (15%). Conference attendees found the following topics at the second highest level (4) of value: nexus of soil quality and water quality (49%), pasture and rangeland (43%), soil quality nutrient management (42%), nutrient management cover crops and environmental monitoring (38%), compost biochar and nutrient recovery technologies (22%) and food safety (18%). Participants found the topics are the third highest level of value to be: food safety (35%), pasture and rangeland (35%), nutrient recovery technologies (31%), compost, biosolids and chars (27%), nutrient management, cover crops and environmental monitoring (17%) and nexus of soil quality and water quality (17%). Conference attendees found the following topics at the second to the lowest level (2) of value: Food safety (20%), nutrient recovery technologies (7%), pasture and rangeland (4%) and compost, biosolids and char (2%) and nutrient management, cover crops and environmental monitoring (2%). Attendees listed that the following topic sessions be the least valuable (level 1): food safety (13%), compost, biosolids and car (6%), pasture and rangeland (2%) and nutrient recovery technologies (2%). The remaining three topic sessions: nexus of soil quality and water quality; soil quality and nutrient management; and nutrient management, cover crops and environmental monitoring were not mentioned in this lowest level of value.
Participants were asked to rate varying aspects of the conference management: content, organization and participation on five levels from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The majority of 54% agreed that the conference was well organized and planned. Fifty percent strongly agreed that the content was appropriate. The majority (46%) agreed that the conference was organized to allow the attendees to fully participate.
The virtual conference sessions were live during the last week of October 2020 where attendees could answer zoom polls during sessions. The Nexus of Soil Quality and Water Quality session had the most participants of all the conference sessions; 121 participants and 31 people completed the session poll. The majority (29) of session attendees preferred this type of virtual professional development (PD) conference to be held every year vs every other year (2) or every every three years (0) participants. All participants in this nexus session would recommend the conference to others and from a 1-10 scale, an average of 8.2 found the session information of value to their profession.
Nineteen of the eighty one people present for the live Nutrient Recovery Technology session completed the zoom poll. Sixteen of those nineteen people were in favor of attending a virtual PD conference every year, 3 every other year and nobody voted on every 3 years. All participants in this nutrient recovery session would recommend the conference to others and from a 1-10 scale, an average of 7.9 found the session information of value to their profession.
In the food safety session, 29 people attended and 19 people completed the poll. Five people were in favor of this type of virtual professional conference to occur every year; 3 people were in favor of every year and 1 person voted for a 3 year option. All participants in the food safety session would recommend the conference to others and from a 1-10 scale, an average of 8.5 found the session information of value to their profession.
Eighteen people of the twenty one people who attended the Pasture and Rangelands session were interested in having a virtual professional development conference of this type every year. Two people in this session voted for this type of conference every year and only one person voted for a three year occurrence. All participants who responded in the Pasture and Rangelands session poll would recommend the conference to others and from a 1-10 scale, an average of 8 found the session information of value to their profession.
Of the 73 people in the Nutrient Management, Cover Crops and Environmental Monitoring Session, 9 people of the 18 who completed the live zoom poll would like to see this type of conference occur every year and two people would like to see it occur every other year. All participants who responded in the Nutrient Management, Cover Crops and Environmental Monitoring session poll would recommend the conference to others and from a 1-10 scale, an average of 8.2 found the session information of value to their profession.
Nine people of the seventy one people in the Char, Compost and Biosolids session responded to the live poll, would like to see this type of virtual professional conference occur year. No one voted in the live poll to see it occur every other year, or every three years. All participants who responded in the Char, Compost and Biosolids session poll would recommend the conference to others and from a 1-10 scale, an average of 8.1 found the session information of value to their profession.
Project Outcomes
- Recordings of the 7 oral sessions and 1 video case study session are now available at https://extension.wsu.edu/pmwncfsc/conference-agenda/. The session recordings contain the Question and Answer portion of the conference. In addition, each of the 64 individual presentations and 6 case study videos have been processed for ADA compliance and have a caption option.
- Continuing Education Units Offered :
CEUs Requested:
Nutrient Management: 23.5
Soil & Water Management: 0
Integrated Pest Management: 0
Crop Management: 0
Professional Development: 0
Manure Management: 0
Sustainability: 0
Precision Ag: 0
Approved CEUs:
Nutrient Management: 23.5
Soil & Water Management: 0
Integrated Pest Management: 0
Crop Management: 0
Professional Development: 0
Manure Management: 0
Sustainability: 0
Precision Ag: 0
Session: Nutrient Cycling, Soil Health, and Food Safety Conference - Nexus of Soil Quality and Water Quality
Location: Virtual via Zoom
City, State: virtual, WA
Tracking Number(s): NW 56126
Nutrient Management CEUs: 3
Session: Nutrient Cycling, Soil Health, and Food Safety Conference - Pasture and Rangeland
Location: Virtual via Zoom
City, State: virtual, WA
Tracking Number(s): NW 56127
Nutrient Management CEUs: 2.5
Session: Nutrient Cycling, Soil Health, and Food Safety Conference - Nutrient Recovery Technologies
Location: Virtual via Zoom
City, State: virtual, WA
Tracking Number(s): NW 56128
Nutrient Management CEUs: 4
Session: Nutrient Cycling, Soil Health, and Food Safety Conference - Soil Quality Nutrient Management
Location: Virtual via Zoom
City, State: virtual, WA
Tracking Number(s): NW 56129
Nutrient Management CEUs: 2.5
Session: Nutrient Cycling, Soil Health, and Food Safety Conference - Compost, Biosolids, and Chars
Location: Virtual via Zoom
City, State: virtual, WA
Tracking Number(s): NW 56130
Nutrient Management CEUs: 4.5
Session: Nutrient Cycling, Soil Health, and Food Safety Conference - Nutrient Management, Cover Crops and Environmental Monitoring
Location: Virtual via Zoom
City, State: virtual, WA
Tracking Number(s): NW 56131
Nutrient Management CEUs: 4.5
Session: Nutrient Cycling, Soil Health, and Food Safety Conference - Food Safety
Location: Virtual via Zoom
City, State: virtual, WA
Tracking Number(s): NW 56132
Nutrient Management CEUs: 2.5
3. Case studies from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah were developed into featured multimedia products. These multimedia projects were featured as part of the conference and are posted on the conference recordings webpage: https://extension.wsu.edu/pmwncfsc/conference-agenda/ The Nutrient Management, Food Safety and Soil Health Case Study Multimedia projects are listed :
Anaerobic Digesters in Utah: Smithfield Foods has recently installed anaerobic digesters at their swine production facility in Milford, UT. This operation converts the methane produced to a renewable natural gas.
Improving Organic Grazing Systems: View the work being conducted by several scientists at the Utah State University Intermountain Irrigated Pasture Research facility to improve organic dairy grazing systems. Research examines the use of grass-legume mixtures and their impact on rates of gain, nutrient cycling, reproduction, and economic returns.
Alternative Land Management Strategies for Land Receiving Manure and Lagoons in Idaho: The purpose of this video is to highlight the potential ways that cropping system management can help overcome nutrient management challenges faced by dairymen in southern Idaho. The video features an environmental consultant and a dairyman discussing cropping rotations and management strategies that can reduce soil nutrient accumulations by manure and lagoon water application
Use of Centrifuges for Dairy Manure Solid-Liquid Separation: This video showcases the use of centrifuge technology for secondary solid-liquid separation on two Idaho dairies.
Ammonia and Odor Reduction While Retaining Nutrients, a Dairy Producer Experience in Idaho: This video describes a southern Idaho dairy farmer's technology use, including dairy slurried manure application using a drag hose and subsurface injection system. It also highlights a pilot zeolite filter trial at his farm that resulted in significant ammonia and odors emission reduction from a dairy flush pit.
Increasing Cover Crop Diversity in Post Harvest Season: A Case Study in OSU-HAAREC: This video summarizes the use of cover crops in multiple cropping systems in Oregon.
Making the Nutrient Cycle Connection Between Dairy and Berry Farmers in Washington State: Berry growers in Whatcom County are finding that dairy manure is a good source of nutrients for production of raspberries.
Use of Dairy Compost on Eastern Washington Vegetable and Fruit Crops: Vegetable and fruit producers in Eastern Washington are finding that composted dairy manure is an excellent source of nutrients for their crops.
- Recordings of the 7 oral sessions and 1 video case study session are now available at https://extension.wsu.edu/pmwncfsc/conference-agenda/. The session recordings contain the Question and Answer portion of the conference. In addition, each of the 64 individual presentations and 6 case study videos have been processed for ADA compliance and have a caption option.
- Continuing Education Units Offered :23.5
- Case studies from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah were developed into featured multimedia products. These multimedia projects were featured as part of the conference and are posted on the conference recordings webpage: https://extension.wsu.edu/pmwncfsc/conference-agenda/ The Nutrient Management, Food Safety and Soil Health Case Study Multimedia projects are listed :