Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
- Education and Training: Radio broadcast, newsletter article, scientific presentations
- Natural Resources/Environment: drainage water purification
- Production Systems: organic agriculture
Summary:
Improved drainage via tiling is essential for economically viable crop production in many parts of the North Central Region but this practice contributes to water quality problems by increasing nitrogen (N) loss from fields. A woodchip bioreactor is a trench full of woodchips that cleans N from tile drainage water using the natural process of denitrification. This study monitored a bioreactor at my Illinois farm during transition to organic production. Importantly, this was the first study of a bioreactor with an organic cropping system. Summed over the two-year monitoring period, the bioreactor was 47% efficient at removing N from the water that flowed through it, and 33% efficient considering untreated water that was routed around the bioreactor. This compares favorably to the 25% edge-of-field efficiency that bioreactors are rated at in Illinois. Bioreactors promote stewardship of our water resources (ecologically sound), are a cost-effective practice for reducing N loss in tile drainage water (economically viable) and are socially responsible in that they provide cleaner water for downstream neighbors and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico.
Project objectives:
- Perform the first-ever assessment of a woodchip bioreactor treating tile drainage from an organic cropping system.
- Measure tile drainage nitrogen concentrations and loads during early transition from conventional to organic cropping methods and compare to research data from conventional cropping systems.
- Share information about bioreactors in general and new findings about organic cropping nitrogen loads via popular press articles and newsletters.
- Raise awareness in the agricultural community of the importance of farmers taking responsibility for the quality of water drainage from their farms.