Focus on Ag - University of Minnesota · Focus on Ag NEWSLETTER OF DAKOTA ... Nitrogen Smart workshops, which covered the fundamentals for ... computer software, many new tools are

Focus on Ag

NEWSLETTER OF DAKOTA COUNTY AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION

Spring 2016

Vol. 10 No. 1

IN THIS ISSUE What does the 2

nitrogen management

plan mean for you?

Tools for soil 4

moisture monitoring

New irrigation 5

efficiency incentive

program

Cover crops 6

research update

Dear producers,

Happy spring!

I know you’re all itching to get out into the field, but I’m hoping you’ll have a few minutes to catch up on the latest research and news before the growing season gets up to full speed.

I think the articles enclosed are worth your time. Inside you’ll find the results of the drinking water nitrate testing program, a guide to technology for monitoring soil moisture, an invitation to participate in a new irrigation efficiency incentive program, and an update on the latest cover crops research.

We had a good, busy, winter meeting season. I enjoyed seeing all of you who came out to participate and learn.

The photo below is from February’s Private Pesticide Applicator recertification training. Participants got to see Dave Nicolai’s

demonstration of how different types of spray nozzles affect drift.

In March we hosted one of the new Nitrogen Smart workshops, which covered the fundamentals for maximizing economic return on nitrogen investments while minimizing nitrogen losses. Look for an expanded, bigger and better Nitrogen Smart program next year!

The 10th annual Crops Day had a great turn-out, with speakers covering, farm finances, nitrogen management, herbicide resistant weeds, soil moisture monitoring technology, pesticide monitoring in drinking water, and energy management. Thank you to Dakota Electric Association and Kimmes-Bauer Well Drilling for being such great hosts, and to the Southeast Irrigators Association, for co-meeting with the Crops Day.

Neith

FIND MORE LOCAL ARTICLES ONLINE: http://z.umn.edu/dakota

Get more info sooner by signing up for Focus on Ag online! http://z.umn.edu/DCenews

© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved. University of Minnesota Extension is an equal opportunity educator and employer. This material is available in alternative

formats upon request. Direct requests to 612-624-1222. Printed on recycled and recyclable paper with at least 10% postconsumer waste material.

UPCOMING EVENT

May 25, 9 am to 3 pm

Women Caring for the

Land: soil conservation

Register at http://www.renewingthecountryside.org/wcfl05252016

or by calling Beth Kallsted at (507) 301-9900

Photo credits: cover, Patrick O’Leary, University of

Minnesota; top right, Scott Streble, U of M Extension;

above, Neith Little, U of M Extension

For more information:

Neith Grace Little

Dakota County Extension Educator for

Agriculture Water Quality Protection

Dakota County Extension &

Conservation Center

4100 220th St. W Ste. 101

Farmington, MN 55024

Office: 651-480-7700

Neith: 651-480-7723

[email protected]

Dakota County Ag Extension website:

http://z.umn.edu/dakota

2

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EXTENSION

FOCUS ON AG—WINTER 2016-Vol. 10 no. 1

Minnesota’s Nitrogen Fertilizer Management Plan

What does it mean for you?

What is the Minnesota Nitrogen Fertilizer

Management Plan?

Minnesota Commissioner of Agriculture, Dave

Frederickson, says this about the plan:

“The primary goal of the Nitrogen Fertilizer

Management Plan is to involve the agricultural

community in problem solving at the local level. We

all need to work together to respond to and address

localized concerns about unsafe levels of nitrate in

groundwater.”

Many states are struggling with how to minimize the

impact of nutrients on ground and surface water. The

Nitrogen Fertilizer Management Plan is Minnesota’s

plan for how to prevent or minimize impacts of

nitrogen fertilizer on groundwater. Most

Minnesotans rely on groundwater for their drinking

water supply.

In Minnesota, the responsibility for protecting water

quality and quantity is divided up among several

agencies. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture

(MDA) is responsible for addressing nitrate in

groundwater that comes from nitrogen fertilizer use

(MN. Stat. 103H.275).

The first plan was written in 1990. For the past three

years, the MDA has worked with an advisory

committee and held public meetings to revise the plan.

The new plan was published in March 2015.

What does the plan say?

You can read the whole thing at the MDA website:

http://www.mda.state.mn.us/chemicals/fertilizers/

nutrient-mgmt/nitrogenplan.aspx

They also have some very clear, short fact-sheets on

the website under “About.”

The heart of the plan are the Nitrogen Fertilizer Best

Management Practices (BMPs). The BMPs were

developed by the University of Minnesota and adopted

by the MDA and cover the rate, timing, and product

selection aspects of nitrogen fertilizer use. The plan

calls for the BMPs to be used on 80% of row crop

acres in areas where high nitrate levels from fertilizer

use have been monitored in groundwater.

If the BMPs are not voluntarily used in areas of high

groundwater nitrate, the plan outlines a process

where regulatory actions can be taken. Regulatory

actions need to be done through a state administrative

rule which is under development. The proposed rule is

broken into two parts:

Part 1 of the proposed rule would restrict fall and

winter application of nitrogen fertilizer in certain

parts of the state where groundwater is particularly

vulnerable. Vulnerable areas will be defined in the

rule and are anticipated to include coarse textured

(sandy) soil and areas of shallow fractured bedrock

(karst geology). Dakota County has relatively sandy

soils, and several counties in southeastern Minnesota

have karst geology.

Part 2 of the rule would formalize the process

described in the Nitrogen Fertilizer Management Plan,

where the MDA will respond in areas where nitrate

contaminated groundwater has been identified and

the BMPs are not being used on at least 80% of row

crop acres:

“After farmers have been notified about the specific

[Best Management Practices (BMPs)] recommended

for their area, they will have three years to adopt

the BMPs before additional rules may be applied to

an area. If the BMPs are adopted it is unlikely

additional regulations will be required. If nitrate

concentrations are unacceptable and farmers do

not adopt the BMPs, the MDA can move into the

regulatory levels. The proposed rule will include a

list of site specific management practices that may

be required in areas that are in regulatory levels of

the NFMP.”

Continued on page 3...

3 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA EXTENSION


Continued from page 2...

The rule development process will take 2 to 3 years

with the finalized rule expected in 2018. During this

period there will be multiple opportunities for public

comment.

What does this mean for Dakota County?

The MDA will start nitrogen fertilizer management

projects in townships where private well water

testing find 10% or more of private wells have a

nitrate concentration above the Health Risk Limit of

10 mg/L.

In Dakota County, a lot of the work of testing

nitrate in groundwater has been done already.

In 2013 and 2014, the county was a pilot area for the

MDA’s Township Testing Program. In cooperation

with the MDA, the County offered private well

owners in the southwest townships free well-water

testing. Well-water samples were mailed to a private

lab to be tested for nitrate. The map in Figure 1

shows the results.

Initial well testing data show that 11 townships

have more than 10% of tested private wells over

the Health Risk Limit for nitrate. This means that

that we can expect to see community involvement

with how to protect and improve drinking water in

the coming years.

This should come as no surprise. Dakota County

government, farmers, and residents have been

working on this issue for years. The ground-breaking

work done in Dakota County played an important

role in motivating the development of the state-wide

drinking-water testing program, and the revised

Nitrogen Fertilizer Management Plan.

Many of you reading this have been engaged in this

issue in the past, whether by hosting a nitrogen field

trial, or installing a conservation practice, or

attending an educational event. Thank you for your

hard work. I have faith that we can continue to work

together to improve our community—protecting

drinking water and improving agricultural

livelihoods. So please stay tuned, and stay engaged.

Neith Little, Dakota County

Extension Educator

Learn more:

U of M Extension Nitrogen BMP’s

are available online at

http://z.umn.edu/NBMPs

Or come pick up a copy at the

Dakota County Extension Office!

Figure 1: Map of private drinking well testing results from 2013 and 2014. Data were published by Minnesota Department of Agriculture in March, 2016.

The threshold of 10 mg/L nitrate-N is the Health Risk Limit, above which drinking water is considered unsafe for infants.

4



Irrigation water management tools:

Soil moisture monitoring

What tools fit your management system?

Monitoring the amount of water stored in the soil can

help irrigators decide when and how much to irrigate.

With recent advances in cellular telemetry and

computer software, many new tools are available to

monitor soil moisture and use that information to

make irrigation water management decisions. Finding

the right tools that meet your needs is all about

finding the right equipment, and the right price, to

optimize profitability.

This article will describe some of the traditional and

newer options available for monitoring soil moisture.

As you read about the options available, consider the

following questions:

What is your farm management style? Would you

prefer a low-cost, hands-on approach, or a higher-

priced, turn-key system?

How variable are your soils within a single field?

How much soil water holding capacity do you have

to work with?

Products and brands shown below are only used as

examples and are not an endorsement.

Traditional irrigation water management tools

Tensiometers:

Behave like a plant root and measure how hard it is

for the root to extract water from the soil.

Strengths: Self-

contained, accurate

Weaknesses:

Requires some

special equipment

to setup and

maintain, cannot be

remotely read.

Costs: $150 per field or zone

Best fit: intensively managed or horticultural crops

that requires routine infield management.

Resistance sensors:

Resistance based soil

moisture sensors that are

calibrated to provide the

same readings as a

tensiometers, but without the

maintenance requirements.

Strengths: Accurate, requires

no maintenance once installed, very versatile, can be

read in many different ways.

Weaknesses: Requires special equipment to read.

Cost: $60 per field or zone

Best fit: Growers that are looking for low cost ways to

precisely apply irrigation water across diverse soil

types.

Capacitance Sensors:

Soil moisture sensors that

provide volumetric water

content (when properly

calibrated).

Strengths: Provides

volumetric soil water content that can be used in

conjunction with irrigation scheduling to forecast days

until next irrigation.

Weaknesses: Expense, may require dataloggers/

telemetry, and needs to be well calibrated to soil type

to get accurate reading.

Cost: $200-$3000 per field or zone

Best fit: Growers that have very uniform soil types

and, or are looking for a integrated solution with lots

of technical support.

Irrigation Scheduling Software:

In Minnesota and North Dakota this is an Excel based

program that allows growers to schedule irrigation

applications based off of a soil water balance.

Strengths: Can monitor multiple fields quickly and

accurately, integrates record keeping, and requires no

special equipment.

Weaknesses: Steep learning curve and daily entry of

accurate climate data.

Cost: $0


… continued from page 4.

Enhanced, real time irrigation water management

tools

Cellular telemetry for soil moisture sensors

The ability to remotely monitor soil moisture

conditions, using the previously mentioned sensors,

in farm fields has been around for the last decade, but

recent declines in costs and newer application

platforms have made this a much more powerful

management tool for irrigators.

These self-contained cellular devices also offer more

than just soil moisture monitoring. They can provide

real-time, site-specific precipitation data, start and

stop irrigation, or even change the amount of

irrigation water being applied from across town, or

from across the state. Many irrigation companies

offer remote management capabilities on their newer

pivots, but there are also companies that offer retrofit

options for many older model pivots for less than

$2000.

Joshua Stamper, University of Minnesota Extension

Irrigation Specialist

NEW PROGRAM: Want to try scheduling

irrigation based on soil moisture?

Agricultural producers are invited to participate in an

incentive program to increase efficiency of center

pivot irrigation systems, and, as a result, better

manage water use and fertilizer.

Dakota County, Vermillion River Watershed Joint

Powers Organization (VRWJPO), University of

Minnesota Extension, and Dakota Soil and Water

Conservation District (SWCD) are providing this

incentive program. At least 30 fields, averaging

approximately 100 to 150 acres each, are necessary

to carry out the program during the 2016 growing

season. Participating in this program does not change

the acreage you normally enroll with the Farm

Service Agency nor does it affect your crop insurance.

Many good technologies and services exist to provide

field-specific soil moisture and irrigation scheduling

with varying costs. The incentive program will

provide services to collect field-specific moisture and

direct assistance to producers using the “Irrigation

Scheduling Checkbook,” a tool to assist in irrigation

water management. The total annual cost to provide

these services is $600/field. The program will

provide $400/field, so the producer is responsible for

the remaining $200/field. If a producer wishes to use

technologies and services with higher costs than

what is provided, the producer can still utilize the

program, but will be responsible for the remaining

costs. University of Minnesota Extension staff will

provide program participants information about field

-measured soil moisture conditions and

consultation on scheduling their next irrigation cycle.

Water use and fertilizer management have received

heightened scrutiny in recent years for their potential

impacts on surface and groundwater quality and

quantity. As a result, regulations on water use and

fertilizer management may be developed by State

agencies in coming years. The organizations offering

this program want to assist agricultural producers in

being proactive in advance of potential regulations by

demonstrating measures to improve surface and

groundwater quality and quantity and thereby

potentially avoiding regulatory burdens.

If you have questions or are interested in taking

part in this incentive program, please contact

Ashley Gallagher at the Dakota County SWCD at

(651) 480-7781 by May 1, 2016.



6



Cover crops research update

Exploring new cover-cropping opportunities in Minnesota

Cover cropping practices have been gaining popularity

and interest across the agricultural landscape as

systems evolve to optimize land and resource

management for greater economic and environmental

sustainability.

In other agricultural regions, cover crops are used as

an effective tool to sequester nutrients, contribute

organic matter, and protect soils from erosion during

otherwise fallow periods. The high intensity corn-

soybean systems of Minnesota could gain similar

benefits from cover cropping, particularly in the

spring when soil and nutrients are most vulnerable to

offsite movement. In the upper Midwest, these losses

occur through leaching and tile drain discharge, as

well as surface runoff. Research conducted in

Southwest Minnesota estimates an average 25 kg ha-1

(22 lbs/ac) of nitrate nitrogen is lost through

subsurface tile drainage between mid-September and

May every year.

The primary challenge facing successful cover

cropping in Minnesota is the short growing season.

There is rarely ample time and favorable field

conditions to plant and establish a cover crop after the

grain harvest and before winter sets in. Current

research at the University of Minnesota is

working to identify and develop viable

options for interseeding cover crops into

standing corn. Field sites are at the UMN

Southern (Waseca) and Southwestern

(Lamberton) Research and Outreach

Centers, and trials have been conducted for

the past two years (2014 and 2015).

The study is looking at five different cover

crops and three different planting methods

around corn growth stage V7. Species

include winter rye, red clover, pennycress,

hairy vetch, and an Albert Lea cover crop

mixture called NitroMax CC1 (oats, peas,

and tillage radish). The three cover crop planting

methods are as follows:

1. Drilled with a 3-in-1 InterSeederTM high

clearance drill (Figure 1)

2. Directed broadcast (interrow) with light

incorporation (dragging a rake and chain)

3. Directed broadcast (no incorporation).

Cover crop biomass and soil NO3-N levels were

assessed following corn harvest (late September) and

again in the spring (mid-April) prior to termination.

The covers were sprayed out with glyphosate and

soybeans were no-till planted into the residues, as

well as check plots with no cover crops.

All cover crop species germinated, although

establishment and persistence varied across species

and planting methods depending on climatic

conditions. Rye (Figure 2), red clover, and hairy vetch

(planted with the InterSeederTM) had the most

successful stands across locations after the corn

harvest. However, the directed broadcast +

incorporation planting method resulted in competitive

stands especially in the small seeded species such as

red clover (Figure 2) and pennycress.


Figure 1: High clearance drill (InterSeederTM) planting cover crops into standing corn at Lamberton, MN. (June, 26 2015).



Following the 2014 planting at Waseca, all species

(except for NitroMax CC1) overwintered and produced

significant biomass in the spring . At Lamberton, only

the rye and pennycress successfully overwintered and

put on significant spring growth. Lack of snow cover in

Lamberton during the winter of 2014-2015 likely

resulted in winterkill of the legume cover crops.

Cover crops did not affect corn yield at either

location in 2014 or 2015 . Soybeans no-tilled into the

residues (with no fertilization) all yielded

competitively as well.

In addition to ecological benefits, cover crops are

being developed and utilized as added-value crops

or “cash cover crops” that can be grazed or

harvested in the spring prior to (or in relay with) the

following warm-season crop rotation. One example

is seeding a winter annual forage crop following a

corn silage harvest. Taking a silage crop removes

more organic matter and leaves soils exposed for an

even longer period of vulnerability than grain corn

and soybean. This time can be utilized as a greater

window for establishment of a supplemental winter

annual forage crop.

This fall (2015) was a prime opportunity for such

cover cropping. Figures 3 and 4 illustrate the

establishment of a rye cover crop no-tilled into corn

stubble following a silage harvest near Canby, MN this

year. This stand will likely provide spring forage for

~2 months grazing before it is terminated and planted

with short season soybeans next year.

Reagan Noland, graduate student; Neith Little, Dakota

County Extension Educator; and M. Scott Wells,

University of Minnesota Extension Agronomist

Figure 2: Left: Cereal rye planted with the high clearance drill (InterSeederTM) into V7 corn on June 25, 2014. Photo taken on July 17, 2014. Right: Medium red clover, planted via directed broadcast with incorporation into V7 corn June 25, 2015 in Waseca, MN. Photo taken October 21, 2015.

Figure 3: Rye planted on September 12, 2015 following corn silage harvest near Canby, MN. Photograph taken September 18, 2015. (Photo credit: Jared Goplen)

Figure 4: Rye planted on September 12, 2015 following corn silage harvest near Canby, MN. Photograph taken October 31, 2015. (Photo credit: Jared Goplen)

IN THIS ISSUE

Nitrogen Fertilizer Management Plan Tools for soil moisture monitoring New irrigation efficiency program Cover crop research update

Focus on Ag

Spring 2016, Vol 10, No.1

Dakota County Extension and Conservation Center

4100 220th St. W Ste. 101

Farmington, MN 55024-9539

Documents

Focus on Ag - University of Minnesota · Focus on Ag NEWSLETTER OF DAKOTA ... Nitrogen Smart workshops, which covered the fundamentals for ... computer software, many new tools are