ADA, Ohio — Passage of Senate Bill 1 by the Ohio Senate makes the water quality portion of the upcoming Conservation Tillage Conference even more relevant, according to conference coordinator Randall Reeder.

Improving Ohio’s water quality, particularly ways to keep phosphorus and nitrogen from impacting water resources, will be the focus of a daylong discussion by industry and university experts during the conference set for March 3-4 in the McIntosh Center at Ohio Northern University in Ada.

S.B. 1 seeks to regulate agriculture’s application of fertilizer and manure to comply with certain requirements, as well as establish requirements governing dredged material, nutrient loading and phosphorous testing by publicly owned treatment works.

Experts say phosphorus runoff from farmland is a cause of the harmful algal blooms plaguing Lake Erie and other lakes. In August, toxins from a bloom in western Lake Erie led to a two-day drinking water ban in Toledo.

“We have one concentrated session all day Wednesday (March 4) on solving the problems,” said Reeder, a retired Ohio State University extension agricultural engineer. “It is focused on that problem, answering those questions. My goal is by the time we leave there will be a prioritized list of top 10 solutions. We’ve really got the top scientific and engineering minds there to discuss it.”

He said the conference will offer a good time to talk about the problem in detail.

“Not only will we identity what the magnitude of the problem is, but we will also look at what farmers are willing to do and come up with a list of prioritized solutions to the issue of improving water quality in Ohio,” Reeder said. “There are different things, and some of them you might be able to prioritize, but the real key is to get the really important ones on the list to be considered.”

Some of those key topics are injecting fertilizer into the soil instead of placing it on the surface; gypsum, which has benefits in certain situations; and controlled drainage. “Probably No. 1 is soil testing,” he said. “If you don’t need it, don’t put it on.”

The session is scheduled for 8:30 a.m.-4:50 p.m. and will include multiple presentations and panel discussions featuring college researchers, scientists and agricultural engineers, in addition to representatives from the USDA, Ohio Department of Agriculture, Ohio Farm Bureau, Battelle Memorial Institute, Heidelberg University and Nester Ag Solutions.

Overall, the conference features 60 presenters, including 20 OSU College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) researchers and extension educators, as well as farmers and industry representatives. Elsewhere during the two days of meetings and presentations, Reeder said Corn University (March 3) and Soybean School (March 4) will help farmers focus on current needs for those two row crops.

“With lower prices, especially for corn this coming year, the focus will be cutting costs,” Reeder said. “’How can I farm more efficiently?’”

Both sessions will have the latest research, insight, tips and techniques on conservation tillage, including cover crops, no-till, soil quality, soil health, seeding technology, water quality and nutrient management.

Other topics also are on the schedule during the annual conference, sponsored by CFAES. More than 900 participants are expected to attend the event, which is organized by OSU extension and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.

A sample of topics are: soil health benefits of continuous no-till and cover crops; variable rate seeding; economics of no-till, strip till and conventional tillage systems; and policy issues. A full schedule and registration information can be found at http://fabe. osu.edu/CTCon

Online pre-registration ends Feb. 26. Registration at the door is $105 for both days.