By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER

Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — One crop year into its efforts, the Blanchard River Demonstration Farms Network (BRDFN) is striving to put sound science behind the conservation practices that researchers are recommending farmers implement to clean up harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie.

In 2015, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation (OFBF) and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service launched the project; it’s a five-year, $1 million partnership to demonstrate on-farm conservation practices to help improve water quality and nutrient conservation. BRDFN is a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative project.

In 2017, the project hosted more than 700 visitors; area farmers, FFA students, Rotary members, county commissioners, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, Toledo Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson and many other groups have witnessed the effort Ohio farmers are making to improve water quality.

Three farms in Hancock and Hardin counties are involved. They are Kellogg Farms, owned and operated by father and son Bill and Shane Kellogg; Kurt Farm, owned and operated by Chris Kurt; and Stateler Farms, owned and operated by father and son Duane and Anthony Stateler.

The farms showcase practices such as variable rate manure application, subsurface placement of nutrients, phosphorous removal beds and drainage water management structures. Ohio State University researcher Kevin King is doing edge-of-field research that will show the data from those practices.

“We want to look at the economic and environmental benefits of those technologies we’re asking farmers to put out on the land,” said Aaron Heilers, who is under contract with OFBF to manage the network.

The network wants farmers from across the state to be able to pick what practices are the best fit for their operations, Heilers said, and to learn what it will take to hit the phosphorus reduction goal in the Western Lake Erie Basin (in 2016 the U.S. and Canada struck a deal to adopt targets to reduce algae-feeding phosphorus entering Lake Erie by 40 percent by 2025).

While it is too early to talk about results yet, there are four overall practices researchers are recommending, he said. The first is soil testing and then keeping soil test phosphorus levels within the tri-state fertility guide recommendations.

Next is improving soil health with cover crops, no-till and related practices, Heilers said – getting water to go down through the soil profile as opposed to running off the top. That reduces phosphorous concentration.

“The third practice is subsurface placement of nutrients,” he explained. “That was a big one, getting the nutrients in contact with the soil. Last is disconnecting hydrologic pathways: drainage water management, wetlands, filter strips, those are the practices where we’re slowing water down before it hits the ditch.”

One innovative practice is a two-stage ditch on Kurt’s farm, built through a partnership with the Hardin Soil and Water Conservation District and the Nature Conservancy. Kurt had always been conservation-minded, but became more so because he was living in Toledo at the time of the 2014 drinking water crisis.

A two-stage ditch is two ditches in one, he explained. It’s a normal ditch for the low-flow times, with “benches” built on each side for times when more water is moving through. Vegetation grows on the benches, which helps filter out some sediment during high-flow times. The two-stage ditch also allows for a larger volume of water to flow through, which slows down the water.

One consistent remark that Heilers has heard from visitors to the farm when they see the two-stage ditch and other practices is that they had no idea how sophisticated agriculture is. “We think we’re doing a good job of telling people what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, but it is still not getting to the people who need to hear it the most,” he explained.

Farm Bureau sees the ongoing progress and does not want those efforts on the farms and under the international treaty commission and the domestic action plans stopped if the lake is declared impaired said Larry Antosch, senior director of LFBF Policy Development and Environmental Policy.

“We would hope that if the lake is deemed impaired, that the ongoing efforts continue; that they allow time for all of that to be implemented,” he said. “The demonstration farms are showing practices … Things that agriculture can do to address the water quality challenges. Natural systems take time to readjust; there is a concept of lag time that does not get brought up a lot in the discussion.”

That is not to say researchers and farmers are not making progress, Antosch said. But there will not be instant changes because of these land management practices. Natural systems do not respond that quickly. “There is no silver bullet,” Heilers added.