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Hoorman Soil Health Services

  Dr. Jon Witter, Ohio State University water management specialist shared research on how farmers and landowners may capture sediment in runoff, reducing water quality problems. Dr. Witter has been conducting long-term research on two-stage ditches and several other ditch modifications for several years. He found ways to capture sediment that save landowners money on clean out, are faster, more convenient, and are over all cheaper to maintain.  A typical man-made ditch in Ohio is called a trapezoidal ditch with 3:1 side slope which is common throughout Ohio. The bottom is flat, and the sides are fairly steep. Northwest Ohio has at least 10,000 miles of these ditches. When they were constructed to drain the drain the black swamp, the spoils were used to make roads. Often, steep trapezoidal ditches are located next to roads. They tend to erode, and they tend to fill up with sediment and nutrients from runoff. They have to be cleaned out frequently, and often the spoils (sedimen...

Dr. Vinayak Shedekar, Ohio State Drainage Specialist shared additional information on water quality. Dr Shedekar showed improved soil health, cover crops, and no-till had both direct and indirect effects on water quality. A direct effect is increased soil organic matter (SOM) over time. The gain is slow, but on long term research plots, no-till plus cover crops increased SOM from 2.3% (conventional tillage for 75-100 years) transitioned to no-till and cover crops with 4.3% SOM after multiple years. A research question was: Does no-till and cover crops improve water quality? Dr. Kevin King has 41 paired water quality sites with over 200 years of site data. He measures both surface flow and subsurface (tile) flow on these paired plots, comparing conventional tillage to no-till fields. Tile discharge was similar however less nitrogen (N) leaves the no-till fields and on soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), there was no difference. No-till by itself had some gains for N but no difference for...

  Dr. Vinayak Shedekar, Ohio State Drainage Specialist recently shared some information. He compared the last 30 years of subsoil moisture conditions and confirmed that soil moisture levels down to 1 meter (roughly 3 feet) are only about 5-10% of average levels. Streams are very low especially in Southeast Ohio, but also Northwest and Central Ohio. In Northwest Ohio, the advantage of heavy clay soils higher in soil organic matter (SOM) helps retain moisture better than other areas.  Dr. Shedekar also shared that 70% of all crop losses come from water extremes. Usually, excess water is problem and accounts for 50% of all crop losses, while dry weather accounts for 20%. Improved drainage helps remove excess water but also improves soil aeration. Roots need access to oxygen to burn carbohydrates and sugars for energy.  Some farmers are now installing irrigation to help with dry conditions. Farmers first need a good source of water. Rivers and streams can be a source but you ...

  Currently, Ohio has experienced the third worst drought, only surpassed by 1930 and 1933. Fall is the driest time of year (August-November) and about 60% of Ohio is still in a severe to exceptional drought. That means that field capacity, the amount of soil water held in the soil after the excess water has drained away, is still very low for next year. After a rain, it generally takes 2-3 days for excess soil water to drain away. The small amount of precipitation (rain, snow) we currently received may help, but it will take considerable moisture to fill up our available soil water holding capacity reserve for growing crops next year.  In Nebraska, a graduate student (Mandeep Singh) studied how weeds handle drought conditions. He studied 89 journal articles with 1,196 paired observations over 30 years. The data was collected all over the world; mainly North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Here are his findings on how drought and water stress affects weed pr...