>> Drainage water recycling is the capture of water either in a pond, reservoir
or a drainage ditch, and then putting that water back on
when we need irrigation or we have deficit of water conditions.
The main goal is to improve yield, but also there's a benefit when it comes
to water quality as well.
When we're talking about a need for drainage,
it goes back to that spring and fall when we're trying to do field operations.
But we also have done experiments looking at saturation duration.
We had one experiment at the V6 stage of corn
where we saturated the soil for a day, three days and seven days
and we were losing from six to 11 bushels
per acre per day that those soils remained saturated.
So it's very important
that we get water off in a timely manner, not only when it comes to yield,
but also when it comes to fertilizer loss issues, when it comes to denitrification
and other issues we face with regards to root damage as well.
>> The system that was
created at Brian Goetz' Farm was fairly simple.
He didn't have a tile outlet.
He hasn't had a crop on this farm in three years, been too wet.
He wasn't making any money and this land is going for $5,000 plus an acre.
It needed to be tile drained. That was the first item.
So his thoughts were: build upon just to harvest,
the water and just let it overflow and then you pump it out into the ditch.
He was going to overhead irrigate it. After talking, he said, Wow,
you're putting all these tile in there at 20 foot spaces.
Why not try to set it up as a sub-irrigation system
with controlled drainage, pumping plans, storage and complete the cycle?
>> Drought and heat stress can have a very negative impact
on crop production in southern Minnesota.
Particularly if it happens at the wrong point in time
of the growth cycle of the crop.
For example, for corn,
it can be very susceptible to drought stress during the reproductive cycle.
So that's when the crop will start to silk and tassel.
The grain is being produced at that point in time, so we're able to
actually then use that drainage water, recycling water stored in the reservoir
to supplementally apply to try to carry that crop in between rain events.
It really helps to alleviate some of the stress that the crop would experience.
One of the things that we actually are doing is we're measuring
the crop stress by looking at the crop canopy temperature.
And one of the things that we have seen is, is that even though the crop
may look like it's healthy and growing fine, that once we might get
really, really dry conditions or dry windy conditions, that the crop can start
undergoing drought and heat stress really, really quickly.
That may be sort of hidden stress.
So being able to monitor that and then respond by being able
to add supplemental water from our drainage water recycling site,
can help alleviate that and help farmers then maintain
high levels of yield and productivity from their crops.
>> So I see drainage
water recycling as being more resilient when it comes to crop production.
That resiliency is going to be important as we see variable rainfall patterns.
We've seen a lot of extremes when it comes to a lot of precipitation.
And then on the other hand, drought situations.
Ultimately, we want to keep the nutrients in the field.
If they are removed in the water resources,
then we can capture those on farm and then re utilize those as well.
I think that has a huge societal benefit as well
because we're keeping them out of the Gulf of Mexico or Lake Erie
when it comes to phosphorus issues or nitrate issues to any water resources.
Downstream from these facilities, we have a major reservoir
that serves as the drinking water source for numerous counties throughout northeast Missouri.
So I see that as a major benefit when it comes to drinking water resources as well.
>> Implementing this system should help with the traditional corn
and soybean rotation as far as increased yields,
both through the improved drainage and the irrigation aspect of it.
And once we get the field in full production and see the capabilities of it,
maybe the possibility of exploring a specialty crop like seed corn
production or sweet corn, once we find out the full capabilities of the farm.
>> One of the things that we hope to see with the drainage water
recycling is the fact that we can prove
through capturing the water coming out of our drainage systems
and then reintroducing it back into the growing crop,
is that the impact of the nutrients going downstream will be lessened.
The biggest concern we have with our drainage systems
right now is the nutrient loading that goes on.
And so if we can prove through our research
that by reintroducing those nutrients back into the crop
we're not sending them downstream, which is a win win for everybody.
>> I feel that the drainage water recycling projects like this
is a big benefit to any client of any contractor,
because as we have noticed throughout the years that with typical irrigation,
we are pulling water from the aquifers and water is our viable source.
If we can actually store the water and use for later,
we are setting ourselves up for future generations
to have an access to water for not only commercial agriculture industries as well.
>> The benefits of doing storage on a project
are to reduce flows downstream and to provide water quality.
100 years ago, drainage systems were designed just to get rid of water,
and a lot of the infrastructure in the Midwest was constructed 100 years ago.
And that infrastructure is failing at this point.
So looking at storage,
looking at best management practices is a different way to design.
I say to a lot of farmers, you don't use your horse and buggy anymore.
You don't use your Model A tractor, you have a brand new tractor.
These drainage systems, it's a new way to do it.
You can manage your water on your fields in the watershed
before it reaches downstream and can help things out.
It is a win win scenario when you can increase your drainage capacity
and provide storage and water quality benefits in a watershed.
>> If we were trying to speak to a policymaker
in terms of thinking about why would this be important to them
and why should they invest in this type of thing,
there's a couple of things that come to mind
when we need to think about this.
The first thing is food security.
So we can think about food security in the future.
By using practices like drainage, water recycling,
we can help fortify food security in the US,
especially if we start thinking about potential impacts of climate change.
Water security is going to be another really important issue to be thinking
about; water security from the standpoint of mitigating peak flows and flooding,
trying to retain water on the landscape
and think about it from that environmental perspective.
And then, of course, you know, when you think about the farm bill
and there's those ideas of thinking about where to invest money for producers
that not only are looking at agronomic benefits, but conservation benefits.
This is kind of a win win; we can get both
from implementing this particular practice and can be implemented
very widespread across the upper Midwest in the corn and soybean producing areas.