Transforming Drainage: Working Together Across the Midwest to Increase Resiliency of Drained Agricultural Land

Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms (ILF) webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, July 6, featuring Jane Frankenberger, professor and extension agricultural engineer, Purdue University. Frankenberger will discuss the Transforming Drainage project that brought together researchers and extension specialists from eight states to advance more resilient drainage systems. Her work focuses on advancing drainage design and management by utilizing tools and strategies to support informed decision making by landowners and stakeholders.

In the webinar, “Transforming Drainage: Working Together Across the Midwest to Increase Resiliency of Drained Agricultural Land,” Frankenberger will highlight the Transforming Drainage project and present lessons learned as well as advances made in practices that store water in the landscape to increase resilience. She will also discuss drain water management strategies that support productivity while addressing environmental challenges.

In addition, she will draw on the innovation and field work of the project members to illustrate practices including controlled drainage, saturated buffers and drainage water recycling. She will also cover tools, publicly available data, research studies and education products that can be used across the region to inform drainage decisions and transform drainage systems.

“While conventional drainage has been a key factor in our remarkably productive agriculture across the Midwest, new strategies are needed to maintain this productivity as extreme weather and concerns about water quality increase,” said Frankenberger. “I am eager to share the efforts of the project team who worked together to increase our knowledge, develop new education strategies, and form a lasting network to continue to transform drainage in the future.”

Participants in Iowa Learning Farms Conservation Webinars are encouraged to ask questions of the presenters. People from all backgrounds and areas of interest are encouraged to join.

Webinar Access Instructions

To participate in the live webinar, shortly before noon CDT July 6:

Click this URL, or type this web address into your internet browser: https://iastate.zoom.us/j/364284172

Or go to https://iastate.zoom.us/join and enter meeting ID: 364 284 172

Or join from a dial-in phone line:

Dial: +1 312 626 6799 or +1 646 876 9923

Meeting ID: 364 284 172

The webinar will also be recorded and archived on the ILF website, so that it can be watched at any time. Archived webinars are available at https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/page/webinars. For a list of upcoming webinars visit https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/page/events.

A Certified Crop Adviser board-approved continuing education unit (CEU) has been applied for. Those who participate in the live webinar are eligible. Information about how to apply to receive the credit will be provided at the end of the live webinar.

New Video Series on Drainage Water Recycling

Drainage Water Recycling: Capturing, Storing, and Using Drained Water for Multiple Benefits

A video series documenting drainage water recycling, an innovative agricultural drainage practice, is now available. This 4-part video series was created based on interviews with drainage researchers, farmers, and contractors to document how this innovative practice is being implemented in Michigan, Minnesota, and Missouri. These videos include information about planning, constructing, and managing drainage water recycling systems, as well as benefits received and lessons learned from each of these case studies. 

Drainage Water Recycling: Capturing, Storing, and Using Drained Water for Multiple Benefits – An overview of drainage water recycling, what challenges are addressed by the practice, and why there is growing interest in the practice. (8:19)

Planning Drainage Water Recycling Systems – An introduction to factors to be considered in planning, including site suitability, designing systems, experiences with permitting and regulations, and available resources for technical assistance. (7:38)

Constructing Drainage Water Recycling Systems – Examples of drainage water recycling system construction, in Michigan and Missouri.  (5:02)

Managing Drainage Water Recycling Systems – An overview of the management of drainage water recycling systems in Missouri and Minnesota, including managing reservoir water levels, irrigation scheduling, controlled drainage systems, and impacts on crop management. (5:41)

For more information on drainage water recycling visit: https://transformingdrainage.org/practices/drainage-water-recycling/

–Liz Ripley

Rethinking Floodplains in Small Streams

What if there was a way to maintain productive agriculture and drainage systems, add resilience to storms, and improve water quality in agricultural lands?

Introducing the simple two-stage ditch!

Tune in to this week’s Iowa Learning Farms Conservation Webinar Series presentation, The Two-Stage Ditch: Improving Water Quality in Agricultural Waterways via Floodplain Construction, to learn all about two-stage ditches and how this conservation practice can help achieve that trifecta of objectives in agricultural lands.

Presented by Dr. Jennifer Tank, Galla Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, this webinar challenges us to rethink land management and floodplain structure of streams running through ag lands. As aquatic ecologist and biogeochemist, Tank’s research is focused on how nutrients move through streams and rivers especially in agricultural landscapes.

Tank’s research on two-stage ditches is focused on small streams in northern Indiana, passing through a corn- and soybean-centric landscape much like here in Iowa. These streams are often characterized by very flashy flow, meaning they rise and expand very quickly following precipitation events, and then also drop quickly following that short period of high flow. Flashy stream flow like this can lead to costly bank failure and sloughing, and carry environmental challenges, as well.

So what exactly IS a two-stage ditch?

Two-stage ditch design involves earthwork that pulls the floodplain away from the main stream channel, effectively tripling the width of the waterway and building in an intentional floodplain. The main stream channel is not touched. The height of this floodplain bench is determined by mimicking Mother Nature – at what height does the water crest during high precipitation events (e.g. those occurring 10-12 times per year)?

It turns out that these two-stage ditches offer a multitude of benefits, including:

• Reduced overbank flooding and bank failure
• Reduced sediment export (as water spreads out and slows down, sediment is dropped on floodplain)
• Reduced phosphorus export (loosely bound to soil – so as sediment is dropped out, phosphorus is, too)
• Reduced nitrogen export (increased removal via microbial denitrification)
• Cleaner water downstream

I watched this week’s webinar with admittedly zero knowledge of two-stage ditches, and was blown away by Dr. Tank’s engaging presentation – this webinar is not to be missed!  And I’m not alone in that. A certified crop advisor sent a follow-up email saying, “She was a great speaker yesterday, very enthusiastic and engaging and explained her design and results well. Highly recommend.”

Tune in to Dr. Tank’s full presentation, The Two-Stage Ditch: Improving Water Quality in Agricultural Waterways via Floodplain Construction, for further detail on the design and function of two-stage ditches in ag landscapes. For any other webinars you’ve missed in the ILF Conservation Webinar Series, all past webinars are archived on the ILF Webinars page for your viewing pleasure!

–Ann Staudt

“Subirrigation of Crops Using Drainage Water Recycling” Aug. 11 Webinar Recap

“There’s no normal spring and no normal summer”

said Dr. Kelly Nelson early in his webinar about the benefits of using drainage water recycling (DWR) to address seasonal, water uncertainties. After reporting his team’s findings, however, his conclusion about DWR was succinct: “We are increasing resiliency with this system”.

Alongside his team from the University of Missouri’s Greenley Research Center, Nelson collected data from seven experimental plots in OH, MO and MN, over a diverse range of seasons between 2002 and 2016. Although DWR is more complex and expensive than free drainage (FD), accumulated data showed increased yields in 2/3 of the tested acreage, with an average increase of 18 bushels of corn/acre, compared to FD. Of equal importance is the system’s reduction of yield variability by 28%.

Throughout his talk, as well as in response to a question of “what can go wrong”, Nelson stressed the importance of monitoring the water table and preparing for extreme rainfalls, which had the potential for significant crop destruction while using DWR ineffectively. Conversely, he mentioned that when the water table remained stable and the system was automated, the work to maintain DWR was quite low. To assess the viability of DWR for a given area, Nelson mentioned a few key variables including slope, hydraulic conductivity, drainage class, and depth to bedrock.

Regarding DWR’s impact on water quality, Nelson reported nitrate loss reduction up to 70% and a reduction of environmental risks due to the system being a “closed-loop”. Also of interest was the observation that silty clay soil of one site in OH responded much better overall than the clay soil of another.

Nelson concluded his talk by reiterating the significant potential of DWR to reduce variability and uncertainty during very wet or dry seasons. “We always talk about ‘Well that one inch was a million dollar rainfall’. So… can we supply supplemental water at a strategic time and have a very significant payback?

We’re trying to mitigate extremes by having dual-purpose systems”.

Dr. Kelly Nelson

A final question came in at the buzzer about the process of creating insurance incentives to encourage the adoption of DWR by practitioners. Host Dr. Jackie Comito noted that the questioner included a smiley face with his inquiry, while Dr. Nelson responded that “Crop insurance probably goes past my pay grade.”

To get the full details from Kelly Nelson’s webinar, you can watch the archived webinar here.

Finding the Right Fit for Soil Health Practices

Our webinar on Wednesday featured Dr. Abbey Wick, North Dakota State University soil health specialist and associate professor, who shared soil health approaches farmers have used in the northern plains and how they’ve tweaked those approaches to achieve their goals.

Wick explained the importance of creating the right mindset to try out new soil health practices and being willing to adjust the approach in order to meet the on-farm goals. She shared the experiences of farmers who she has worked with, both what practices they’ve tried, and also the lessons that they’ve learned. Some of the lessons learned that were highlighted were:

• Pick your goal
• Ask questions
• Treat cover crop like a cash crop
• Cover crop by soil texture
• Find out why something worked or didn’t work
• Try things out on your worst acres
• Simple is okay
• Share what you’re learning with others and get their input

Wick explained these lessons learned, along with many other during the webinar. She also shared some positives results of soil health practices that farmers are seeing, such as improved water management during wet spring and fall periods and noticeable soil health improvements in clay soils.

To learn more about finding the right fit for soil health practices, watch the full webinar here!

Join us next week, on Wednesday November 18 at noon, for a webinar with John McMaine, assistant professor and water management engineer extension state specialist at South Dakota State University, titled “Don’t Run off!—Managing Stormwater in the Urban Landscape.”

–Hilary Pierce

Using Perennials to Manage Water

Did you know that for generations humans have used perennial vegetation to manage water for managing food supplies, constructing homes and more?

Thousands of years ago in Bolivia, humans created earthen berms covered in perennial vegetation to capture and store rain during the dry season. These shallow ponds were used for a variety of purposes including water storage, drainage and fish management.  Similarly, Mexico City was once a lake and the Aztecs used perennial vegetation to create a foundation on which to build their homes.

Miscanthus (left) has been shown to improve water infiltration and protect soil. Photo credit: Emily Heaton

Today, perennial vegetation can continue to be used to manage water, as Emily Heaton highlighted at our third native perennial plantings workshop at Whiterock Conservancy. Her team is exploring using Miscanthus and other grasses in prairie potholes here in Iowa to create a biomass crop for harvest, improve water quality, and improve the management ease for the corn and soybean areas around the pothole. These benefits along with other benefits like supporting pollinator and other wildlife habitat, water quality and aesthetic beauty of using perennial plantings were discussed among the attendees.

 

A great resource that was shared with the group and we would like to share with anyone looking to establish native perennial vegetation is Plant Iowa Native hosted by the University of Northern Iowa. There you can find links to information about native plants, sources for seeds, plant materials, tips on landscaping, and incentive programs for conservation and preservation. Also find links to educational resources and organizations, as well as finding professional service providers in your area.

These workshops were made possible by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture through the North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.

–Liz Juchems

September ILF Webinar: Bioreactors

On the latest webinar, the Iowa Learning Farms teamed up with the Midwest Ag Drainage Water Management series to discuss Bioreactors with Dr. Richard Cooke, Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Chad Ingels, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach watershed specialist and northeast Iowa farmer.  This dynamic duo gives us a real one-two punch of information about bioreactors!

Cooke offers an expert view of bioreactor design and theory.  He also gives us a look at some potential tools on the horizon that offer insights and projections about bioreactor use.  Ingels brings his experience in farm communities installing, trouble shooting, and managing active bioreactors to the discussion.

Between these two, you are sure you learn something new about Bioreactors!

As always, the webinar is available for viewing at your leisure. (And, of course, you can always catch on our other webinars here!)

-Ben Schrag