Advancing Systematic and Fundamental Changes in Agricultural Water Resources Management

In 2017, Kieser & Associates, LLC and project partners including the St. Joseph River Basin Commission, County agencies and local producers in Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin, set out to reshape agricultural operations that produced benefits for farmers and water quality. We piloted approaches that followed circular economy principles seeking to rebuild soil health and increase crop resiliency, incentivize land management improvements, as well as capture and recover what are otherwise accepted field losses to the water environment…all the while benefiting farms and creating new business opportunities in the region.

Alternative Drain Apportionment

Landowners in legal drainage districts must pay assessments for maintenance and improvements  of public drainage systems that serve them; assessments which are generally based on acreage or linear extent of the adjacent drainage. Our efforts with the Basin Commission tested new methods for calculating drain assessments that could reward farmers who implement land management practices that improve soil and water quality. The project resulted in a new drain assessment methodology being piloted on a total of 33,369 acres over the course of 2020-2022, re-allocating a total of $321,000 for drain improvements and maintenance in LaGrange County, Indiana. Reception from landowners, as well as drainage authorities, has been very positive and the county will be switching to the new methodology for all future projects. The Kieser team continues to work with the Commission to expand the use of this methodology to additional counties.

Soil Health Amendments

Soil health improvements for corn-soy rotations in southwest Michigan were targeted for application of commercially-produced compost using organic (food and food production) wastes for at-scale field applications. Improved soil health resulted in crop yield increases of 10-40 percent each year following annual spring soil amendments. Water quality benefits were not distinguishable across the two years of field applications based on intensive surface runoff and tile drain discharge monitoring. Operations for the compost supplier also did not achieve production levels to match demand during the course of the GLPF-supported project efforts. 

Capturing Soluble P Losses

Successful pilot project development, field-testing and monitoring of an innovative phosphorus filter technology demonstrated an effective approach to capturing soluble phosphorus in tile drainage. Tile losses are recognized as a major source of Ag-related phosphorus loads, particularly in the Western Lake Erie Basin. A cost-effective means to capture and recover phosphorus (being closely watched for its diminishing and finite supply) provides hope for water quality benefits and economic opportunities associated with phosphorus capture.

The patent-pending Compact Agricultural Phosphorus Treatment Structure (or CAPTure^TM system) provides substantial benefits over much larger, difficult to service USDA-NRCS system designs. CAPTure^TM benefits include:

• A small footprint (<25 ft² for every 20 acres of drainage) with no loss of productive fields
• >40% dissolved P removal from tile flows and runoff with long-term deployment
• Ease of installation without heavy machinery
• Easily replaceable media optimizing P capture while enhancing P recovery and reuse
• Managed hydraulics to avoid tile and field flooding

This technology exceeded expectations with second generation designs under GLPF support (below left). The CAPTure™ system is now in fourth generation design with initial production and field applications (below right).