2019 SWCS International Annual Conference July 28-31, 2019 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1. Lisa Blazure
Clinton County Conservation District
Rising to the Challenge of a Cleaner
Chesapeake Bay:
How improving soil health is a win-win
for the farmers and the environment

2. Chesapeake Bay
Watershed:
 64,000 square miles of land
 Largest watershed per unit
volume of water of any estuary in
the world
 6 states &Washington DC
 17 million people
 40,000 miles of PA streams in
Bay watershed. Susquehanna
River provides 50% of the fresh
water
 Drains more than 1/2 of the state
of PA

3. Dead zones
Large portions
of the Bay do
not have
enough oxygen
to adequately
sustain life for at
least some
periods of time
each year.

4. Chesapeake Bay
Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV)
100,000+
highest on record!

5. Blue Crab Populations

6. Nitrogen Loading by Source

9. Nutrient loss to the environment
• Only about half of the nitrogen fertilizer
applied is absorbed by the crop
• Nitrate nitrogen is subject to leaching
and leaving crop fields
• Phosphorus is bonded to soil particles
and enters waterways via soil erosion
• PA Farmers must follow manure
management and erosion control plans

10. Improving soil health is a key
management strategy
 For every 1% increase in soil organic matter, the soil can
hold 17,960 gallons per acre – Christine Jones
 Healthy soils have higher organic nitrogen cycling and
therefore require fewer fertilizer inputs
 Improving soils is a win for agriculture and a win for the
the environment

11. It All Comes Down To Management Decisions
Forest
SOM = 4.3 %
17 yr- Soybean monoculture
SOM = 1.6 %
62.8% loss
of SOM after
17 yr
intensive
tillage
SOIL DIRT
“Agriculture today is farming a degraded
resource and we’ve accepted this as normal”
- Gabe Brown, ND Farmer

12. SoilHealthPrinciples

13. Tillage Impacts
• Soil is vulnerable to erosion
• Changes the soil structure
• Creates crusting
• Changes the soil ecology

14. No-Till Planting Methods

15. Cover crops have many benefits
• Protect the soil
• Feed the soil microbes
• Build organic matter
• Improve infiltration
• Provide habitat for beneficial insects
• Cycle nutrients for the next crop
• Scavenge nutrients

16. December in Lancaster County, PA
Green is beautiful!

17. Living roots feed the soil biology
ROOTS ARE WHERE THE
MAGIC HAPPENS
• Plants produce simple
sugars
• Increased microbes in
the rhizosphere

18. Soil Aggregates
A healthy soil
should look like
cottage cheese
Platey, compacted soil with no structure

19. Excessive stormwater runoff
“We don’t have a runoff problem,
we have an infiltration problem” – Ray Archuleta

20. Schrack Farms Infiltration Rates
August 2014 (Buchanan soil) December 2014
Test #1 – 3.5 inches/hr Test #1 – 2.8 inches/hr
Test #2 – 4.0 inches Test #2 – 9.6 inches
Test #3 – 5.7 inches Test #3 – 4.2 inches
Test #4 – 5.7 inches Test #4 – 7.9 inches
Average = 4.7 inches Test #5 – 10.1 inches
Test #6 – 10.2 inches
Test #7 – 13.9 inches
Test #8 – 7.5 inches
Average = 8.3 inches

21. Healthy soils require less fertilizer inputs,
therefore reduced loading to the Bay
PA Farmers are
conducting their own
research and adjusting
fertilizer rates
Steve Groff,
Lancaster County
Jim Harbach,
Clinton County

22. Diverse cover crop mixes
are often planted after
small grain harvest
Why a Diversity Mix?
• Legumes fix nitrogen
• Provides food and habitat for
microbes
• Promotes soil structure and builds
organic matter
• Creates pollinator and beneficial
insect habitat
Nature is more
cooperative than
competitive

23. Steve Groff - Does Diversity Influence
Yield?
Corn Yields
Affected
By N Rates

24. 52
75
117
145
82
132
159
149
0 50 100 150
Grainyield(bu/a)
Nitrogen fertilizer rate (lbs N/a)
Corn Grain Yield for fields with no cover crops
Previous 12 years field was in high tunnel tomatoes
No Cover Crop Cover Crop

25. 190 bu/ac corn grown with no applied N!
15-way Cover Crop Mix

26. Schrack Dairy Farm Case Study
Continuous forage system (corn silage and ryelage)
Date Field Operation Rate N2 P K
11/10/16 Fall manure application on 3” cover crop 8000 gal/acre 18 50 146
3/5/17 Spring manure application near green-up 8000 gal/acre 18 50 146
5/11/17 Harvesting wilted triticale/rye mix 3 ton/acre1 -51 -21 -78
5/15/17 Spring manure application after corn planting 8000 gal/acre 18 50 146
5/15/17 Total fertilizer applied (30% UAN on corn planter) 208 lbs/acre 66 0 0
7/1/17 Residual manure history N credit 35 lbs/acre 35 0 0
9/29/17 Corn silage harvest 21.8 tons/acre1 -152 -87 -174
Nutrient balance calculation -48 42 186
1 Based on PSU nitrogen requirement rates and P & K removal rates
2 PSU Nitrogen assumption that only 20% of the manure N is crop available
IF THIS FARM FOLLOWED PENN STATE’S RECOMMENDED NITROGEN RATES, IT SHOULD BE
APPLYING 48 POUNDS MORE NITROGEN PER ACRE
ON 340 ACRES MANAGED FOR THESE CROPS = 16,320 LBS OF EXCESS NITROGEN

27. ©Kelly O’Neill