Combining management practices to reduce sediment, nutrients, and herbicides in runoff

M. B. Zeimen; K. A. Janssen; D. W. Sweeney; G. M. Pierzynski; K. R. Mankin; D. L. Devlin; D. L. Regehr; M. R. Langemeier; K. A. McVay

ABSTRACT:

Best management practices have been recommended for controlling nutrient, herbicide, or sediment losses with surface runoff. This study was designed to determine the best overall combination of tillage and application practices to reduce surface losses from cropland. Runoff was collected from two Kansas sites in sorghum-soybean rotation during the 2001 to 2004 crop years and analyzed for bioavailable phosphorus (P), soluble P, total P, ammonium, nitrate, total nitrogen (N), sediment, atrazine, and metolachlor concentrations. No-till treatments consistently experienced higher runoff water volumes than the chisel/disk tillage system used to warm and dry these clay soils in the spring. For this reason the no-till treatments also had higher nutrient and herbicide losses than chisel/disk tillage regardless of use of high or low application management techniques. The high included fertilizer and herbicide application practices intended to reduce losses with runoff while the standard application broadcast applied fertilizer and herbicide at planting. Few consistent differences were seen for pollutant loss between the high and standard application management. When average losses for all eight location-years were compared to chisel/disk low, soluble P losses were 3.0 and 2.1 times higher for no-till low and no-till high, respectively; metolachlor losses were 2.4 and 2.7 times higher for no-till low and no-till high, respectively; and atrazine losses were 4.8 and 6.1 times higher for no-till low and no-till high, respectively. The chisel/disk low did experience two times higher sediment losses compared with the no-till low or no-till high, when averaging over all eight location-years. However, tolerable soil loss was not exceeded. Chisel/disk low generally had small losses for all tested pollutants and may be the best management combination to simultaneously reduce nutrient, herbicide, and sediment losses with cropland runoff for sites like those used in this study.

Footnotes

Meghan Buckley Zeimen is a graduate student in agronomy, Keith A. Janssen is an associate professor at East Central Experiment Field at Kansas State University, Daniel W. Sweeney is a professor for the Southeast Agricultural Research Center, Gary M. Pierzynski is a professor of agronomy, Kyle R. Mankin is an associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering, Dan L. Devlin is a professor of agronomy, David L. Regehr is a professor of agronomy, Michael R. Langemeier, is a professor of agricultural economics, and Kent A. McVay is an assistant professor of agronomy,-all at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas.
Copyright 2006 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society

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