News

Lessons from a Watershed-Level Water Management Project

Large-scale drainage projects can be challenging to co-ordinate, but are better if more people are involved.

The Ontario Soil Network’s 2025 Huron County tour visited the watershed and learned some of the lessons from the project from Harrison Burgsma, who farms in the area.

Controlled Drainage Not Just for Flat Fields Anymore: Michigan Report

Controlled drainage – the practice of using either an automated or manual control system to drain from fields more selectively, thus accounting for dryer periods where more reserves are necessary – has long been recommended for relatively flat fields. Slopes can make the practice complicated, although not impossible.

More An Art Than A Science

Terraced drainage (terraces) has long been recognized as an effective way to reduce runoff and soil erosion. Terraces block the downward flow at key intervals, which reduces surface water velocity and, thus, erosion. In its purest form, it has been used in Asia for as long as 2,300 years.

Rethinking Iowa’s Drainage: Building Resilience with Two-Stage Ditches

After a heavy rain, Iowa’s network of drainage ditches goes to work. Water infiltrates into the soil, flows to subsurface tile drains beneath farm fields and then into open ditches downstream. Together, this drainage network lowers water tables, maintains unsaturated soil conditions, and moves water efficiently after storms. It allows farmers to return to their fields more quickly while also carrying stormwater away from roads, culverts, and homes – potentially reducing local flooding risks.

Limiting Nitrate Loss with Successful Nutrient and Cover Crop Management

Nitrogen loss from agriculture is a primary source of water quality issues in Illinois and Midwestern states. Management considerations such as 4R Nutrient Stewardship and integrating cover crops can help reduce the potential for loss throughout the year. In addition to helping reduce nitrogen loss, effective integration of cover crops can also provide significant soil health and agronomic benefits.

Woodchip Bioreactor Helps Peoria Area Farmer Reduce Nitrogen Runoff

Although the 11-by-44-foot hole on Ethan Koehler’s farm could be mistaken for a swimming pool, it’s actually a woodchip bioreactor under construction.

The 5-foot-deep pit, showcased during the Marshall-Putnam Nutrient Stewardship Field Day Aug. 19, will soon begin capturing nitrogen from about 16 acres of tile-drained cropland in Marshall County.

Saturated Buffers: Proven Practice with New Surprises

A saturated buffer is a conservation drainage practice that targets nitrate in tile drainage discharge. A new Michigan State University study used a paired-field approach to compare a saturated buffer to a free drainage control field. This method allowed researchers to isolate the effects of subsurface buffer flow and controlled drainage, something previous studies couldn’t do.

Ninth Circuit Upholds Clean Water Act Exemption for Irrigated Agriculture

In a decision with major implications for Western agriculture, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the Clean Water Act exemption for irrigation return flows. The ruling in Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations v. Nickels affirms that discharges from irrigated agriculture are exempt from federal permitting requirements so long as they do not include additional point source discharges unrelated to crop production.

Conservation Practices in 2025 Scenarios: Implications for Future US Agricultural Policy

Nearly 25 years ago, the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation published an article explaining three alternative scenarios for Iowa Corn Belt landscapes in the United States in 2025—each driven by distinctly different agricultural policy emphases (Nassauer, Corry, and Cruse Citation2002). It is timely to revisit this work now when conservation funding through 2031, along with several other aspects of past farm bills, have been codified in the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), but the extension of the 2018 farm bill is about to expire.

A GLRI Demonstration Project is Showing How Drainage Water Recycling Can Increase Yields for Farmers

While drainage can have numerous benefits to farmers, it can also have unintended negative impacts on the environment. Most notably, nitrogen and phosphorus can escape fields through drain tile and contribute to water quality issues—especially in intensively drained agricultural regions like the western Lake Erie watershed.