Agronomists offer alternative approaches to gulf...( ed Brouder says. Short crop rotation...)

"Thirty or 40 years ago, most farms in the Midwest were in a longer crop rotation system, which often included planting winter wheat and alfalfa. Now most farms are in a corn-soybean rotation, which is much shorter, in terms of ground cover during the year."

According to Brouder, one way to prevent nitrate runoff is by using cover crops, which are planted in the fall after the corn or soybeans are harvested and then are plowed under in the spring. "With a cover crop you have a place for the nitrogen to go," she says. "With bare ground, nitrification is going on and the nitrate is getting away. With plants, they take it up and hold on to it. This has the potential to be a no-net-cost solution to the farmer and perhaps eventually a net financial benefit to the farmer, because it could reduce the cost of his inputs." (Inputs is the general agricultural term for items such as seed, pesticides and fertilizer, including nitrogen, that a farmer must provide in order to produce a crop.)

Because the cover crops are plowed back into the soil, the nitrogen they have taken up is returned to the soil, and farmers don't have to apply -- or pay for -- as much nitrogen fertilizer.

Turco says that more research is needed on preventing nitrates from leaching into the tile drainage lines. "Our solutions take into account the variability of the farms," he says. "These are lower-cost ideas that have the potential to increase yields and profits."

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Contact: Steve Tally
tally@aers.purdue.edu
765-494-9809
Purdue University
1-Jul-1999