LIMA, OH (WLIO) - Ohio State University is giving agriculture experts an inside look at a new drainage practice that could be good for the farmer and for the environment.
The system was installed by the Ohio Land Improvement Contractors of America at a test field owned by the Lima campus. Old drainage practices move excess water from the fields to ditches and streams and with it the nutrients that were put on by farmers. But with this new way, the water can be filtered of nutrients before it makes it to a waterway to reduce the harmful algal blooms, or the excess water can be reused in the same field.
"Anytime keep that excess water and keep those nutrients on-site within that soil profile, is just a win-win for not only the farmer for the crop uses but also help minimize what gets into the open stream that is deemed as a pollutant," says Steve Gerten, Ohio Land Improvement Contractors of America."
And by putting in these new drainage practices, researchers say that farmers will see an increased yield in their crops.
"We are seeing up to a 6% yield benefit to corn production, just by implementing controlled drainage, or drain water management practice in these fields," says Vinayak Shedeker, OSU research scientist. "You can enhance this practice, you can use it further to put irrigation water back into the system, through a sub-irrigation system and that can even boost your yields further."
The test field has a high rate of flooding, so this will be a good test for the new drainage system.
