Better Farming - November 2016

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Better Farming

November 2016

tions that seek to manage runoff after

it has left the farm field but before the

runoff empties into a main water-

course.

The Ontario Federation of Agricul-

ture (OFA) and the Great Lakes and

St. Lawrence Cities Initiative (GLSL-

CI) announced the joint partnership

earlier this year. The groups aim to

address the beyond-the-field problem

in the upper and lower Thames River

watersheds.

In 2015, the international Lake

Erie Binational Nutrient Management

Strategy report identified the entire

Thames River watershed as one of the

key Canadian sources of dissolved

phosphorus that may be affecting

water quality in the Lake Erie basin.

Since the report’s release, govern-

ments and industry on both sides of

the lake have introduced a dizzying

array of incentive programs, regula-

tions and best-management practices

for agriculture to help reduce phos-

phorus loss.

None, however, tackle that in-be-

tween zone when runoff leaves the

farm but has not yet entered the

watershed, says Don McCabe, the

OFA’s president.

“The OFA saw a hole in the quilt to

ensure one landscape,” McCabe says,

and decided to step in.

Nicola Crawhall, the GLSLCI’s

deputy director, says the two groups

approved the partnership and strate-

gy to close the gap in June after

months of consultation with farm

groups, non-government organiza-

tions, drainage professionals, munici-

palities, First Nations and conserva-

tion authorities.

The partnership has applied for

funding from the provincial and

federal Growing Forward 2 program

to pursue the farmland water-man-

agement and drainage strategy and its

implementation.

“We do expect to receive the

funding,” says Crawhall. If the two

partners don’t, they will delay the

project until they obtain funding

from another source. “We have a

number of pokers in the fire.”

The partners envision a five-year

program to determine and test

practical methods to capture phos-

phorus lost from farm fields. “But

there’s a lot of front-end work before

we go out into the field” and work

with farmers and municipalities on

projects, Crawhall says.

Having no single go-to source

involved in managing beyond-the-

field runoff complicates the effort,

adds Crawhall.

“There were all these experts,

extension workers and certified crop

advisors who are excellent at the

application and retention side of

things, and there were all these

drainage professionals who are

excellent at the drainage side of

things,” she says. “We (GLSLCI and

the federation) are bridging the two

(groups of experts).”

The effort complements others that

focus more on the application and

retention of phosphorus. The indus-

try and provincial government’s 4-R

strategy to conserve fertilizer and

nutrients, for example, will involve pi-

lots this fall, and Crawhall anticipates

the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture,

Food and Rural Affairs’ soil health

strategy will be released in coming

months.

Crawhall explains that the beyond-

the-field strategy is needed because

farmers, despite their best efforts not

to, can still lose phosphorus from

their fields. Research shows extreme

weather as a main culprit in phospho-

rus loss from farm fields, she says.

She lists ways to not only slow field

runoff ’s progression to open water-

courses, but also harvest phosphorus

from water so phosphorus can be

returned to the fields from which it

came. That’s where wetlands, such as

the one installed on the Van Severen

farm, come in.

Vegetated wetlands pull up the

phosphorus, she explains. Harvesting

that vegetation before it dies reduces

the risk of phosphorus release.

“You could even vegetate ditches

. . . And harvest the vegetation from

the ditches and keep the water in the

ditches for a bit longer,” she says. “Or

you could do treatment technologies

right at the outlet for the tile drainage

system.”

The first step, though, involves

determining what works best in

different types of soil and climate.

The biggest challenges the strate-

gy’s organizers face are how to

coordinate the many different

RUNOFF

CONTROL

From front to back: Nicola

Crawhall, Don McCabe,

Dave Van Damme and Eric

Westerberg tour a municipal

drain pumphouse in

Wallaceburg.

EricWesterberg (left), a

drainage superintendent in

Chatham-Kent, and Dave Van

Damme, a farmer in the

municipality, watch as water

is pumped from a municipal

drain into a canal that feeds

into Lake St. Clair inWallaceburg.