Developing Manure-Spreading Plans and Comparing the Effectiveness of Soil Data in GIS applications on the Reduction of Non-Point Source Pollution: A Study of Dairy Farms in Dane County, Wisconsin
Peter C. Augello, Bill Buckingham
pcaugello@wisc.edu, wrbuckin@wisc.edu
OBJECTIVE
Our goal is to produce manure spreading guidance based on two types of soil data and compare the effectiveness of each soil dataset on formulating manure spreading plans.
DESCRIPTION
Background
A number of studies have determined that phosphorus loading degrades water resources. Agriculture, especially manure application, is a major source of phosphorus pollution in Dane County.
Farmers have two major motivations for reducing the amount of phosphorus pollution: protecting the natural environment and improving farm productivity. The State of Wisconsin plans to begin enforcing manure spreading regulations in the next few years. If these go into effect, manure spreading locations must conform to specifications regarding susceptibility of erosion and proximity to water courses. Farmers are currently preparing for those regulations by trying to determine optimal spreading plans that meet the proposed guidelines. The second major incentive for farmers is to save money through more effective manure management. The farmer can reduce costs by targeting manure application amounts and timing to certain crops and by reducing the amount of extra phosphorus fertilizer application.
Our research coincides with an ongoing project of the UW Dairy Forage Research Center, which aims to integrate nutrient spreading strategies with the real challenges that Wisconsin farmers face.
Study Area
The study area consists of two privately owned farms and their corresponding watersheds in north-central Dane County. Both farms exist in the glaciated area of Dane County. Both farms reside on or near glacial drumlin fields which cause varying topography to exist throughout the region. Glaciated sections of Dane County have varying soil types and include glacial tills, loess and depositional erratics. The underlying bedrock is composed predominantly of sandstone with layers of dolomite appearing in isolated locations. Groundwater aquifers exist in the sandstone bedrock beneath the glacial deposits. Also, both farms have streams in the proximity of the farm that can be impacted by farming activities.
Proposed Tasks
We will be acquiring data from sources such as the Wisconsin DNR, the UW Dairy Research Center, and the USGS. This data will then be used to carry out the following tasks:
1) Determine areas of high erosion potential.
2) Determine proximity of farms to hydrographic features.
3) Model areas of high potential phosphorus concentration and loss based on two
soil data sets: SSURGO and SoLIM.
4) Create a Manure Spreading plan based on each model for each farm.
5) Compare the model output according to the two different soil data types.
This study will then by applied by the Dairy Research Center in an ongoing project looking at optimizing manure spreading and phosphorous management.