Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

***Please see the attached Summary of Minutes file for full annual report in .pdf format. Minutes of NCERA 217: Drainage Design and Management Practices to Improve Water Quality Annual Meeting: June 7-9, 2011 at Holiday Inn, Fargo, ND, USA Members present: Christopher Hay (SD), Larry Geohring (NY), Matt Helmers (IA), Dan Jaynes (IA), Eileen Kladivko (IN), Kelly Nelson (MO), Larry Brown (OH), Tim Harrigan (MI), Mohamed Youssef (NC), Xinhua Jia (ND), and Roxanne Johnson (ND). Guests present: Paul Sweeney (USDA-NRCS, Bismarck, ND), Jerry Walker (USDA-NRCS- Fort Worth, TX), Thomas Scherer (NDSU, ND), Mark Dittrich (MDA, MN), Lyle Prunty (NDSU, ND), Sanjayan Satchithanantham (Manitoba, Canada), Marcos Cordeiro (Manitoba, Canada), Phil Algreen (Agri-Drain, IA), Bruce Shewfelt (Manitoba, Canada), Gary Feyereisen (USDA ARS, St. Paul, MN), Bill Schuh (ND State Water Commission, Bismarck, ND), Dean Steele (NDSU, ND), Jeppe Kjaersgaard (SD), Suman Shrestha (NDSU, ND), Frank Casey (NDSU, ND), and R. Sri Ranjan (Manitoba, Canada) on June 7. More guests were presented on the second day for the mini-symposium and field tour. Members absent: Ramesh Kanwar (Admin. Advisor, IA), Richard Cooke (IL), Jane Frankenberger (IN), Wayne Skaggs (NC), Sam Kung (WI), Ken Staver (MD), Tammo Steenhuis (NY), Gary Sands (MN), and Jeff Strock (MN). Call to Order at 1:00 pm, June 7, 2011: Larry Geohring welcomed everyone and called the annual meeting of the NCERA 217 committee to order at 1:00 pm on June 7, 2011 at the Board Room of Holiday Inn in Fargo, ND, USA. Everyone present introduced themselves. Xinhua Jia was secretary and responsible for minutes of the current meeting and submission of the annual report. USDA/NIFA Representative report: Mary Ann Rozum was unable to attend, but called in at 1:16 pm through a speaker phone to the meeting room. She indicated that there was limited funding in USDA to attend this years meeting, but she might be able to attend the meeting next year. There were some changes in USDA/NIFA, and Dr. Young is the Interim Director. Mary Ann Rozum is now the program director for Water Sustainability and Climate. Currently the 406 grant for integrated water quality has its RFP, and the proposal is due on July 15. The next round RFP for NIFA will come out around July 1. There would be 30% drop in all USDA funding, and all earmark money would be gone in 2011. Hopefully, 2012 funding opportunity would be better. The CIG grant was also facing a 30% funding cut. There might be some funding left from previous years in some states to support controlled drainage research. However, in the 406 grant, there was no immediate and direct mention of controlled drainage. Food safety program mentioned about pathogen survival from tile drainage and drainage water reused for irrigation. Water quality is part of food safety, so we could look to fit in. Integrate both science and education in a proposal. AFRI food safety RFP was released on May 25, and would be due in October. This years specific pathogen would be on salmonella. She encouraged this group to work with others to apply. Drinking water and irrigation are all related to food safety. General AFRI program was about $0.5 million dollars size. Please call the program office to see if your project would fit into their program. Postdoc fellowship will be on next years RFP. Administrative Advisor report: Ramesh Kanwar was unable to attend the meeting, but called in at 1:40 pm. His comments are as follows: Please express my sincere apologies to the group for my physical presence. I tried to get hold your two Deans (at NDSU) but both were busy and could not make these remarks for me. Please see their response below (at the end of this e-mail). My remarks would be as follows: 1. I welcome you all to the 2011 Annual NCERA 217 Committee meeting and wish you the very best on its outcome. This is a great group and enjoys working with each other. This group has many accomplishments this year including collaborative efforts on multi-million dollar NIFA grant funds. 2. This is one of the two best NCERA Committees and will encourage you to consider nominating this committee for Experiment Station Directors award for the best NCERA Committee of the year. 3. The committee minutes will be due in 60 days from today and need to be put on NIMMS website. Since I am likely to be in India around that time, I will encourage you to put directly on the NIMMS website and I can read and approve from India. 4. Finally, there is a friendly reminder that NCERA 217 will be undergoing midterm review by the NCRA this coming winter, 2012. Guidelines for a favorable can be found at http://ncra.info/MSR_MidtermReview.php. Please note that all materials for the mid-term review must be submitted no later than December 15, 2011 in order to allow the NCRA ample time to conduct the review. Make sure to highlight impacts of this committee. Again, I have enjoyed serving as your administrative advisor since this committees inception and I wish you the very best in the future. He further indicated that some members in this group are involved in a multi-million grant. This group was one of two best committees in the NCERA and should seek to be nominated for the BEST Experimental Station Directors Award. Meeting minute would be due in 60 days of the meeting (by August 7, 2011). Mid-term review for this committee would be due in December this year. If needed, a sub-committee should be formed to prepare for the report. Business meeting #1: Larry Geohring called to approve last years meeting minutes. Eileen Kladivko moved to approve, Kelly Nelson seconded a motion and all in favor to approve the minutes from the previous meeting. From October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2014, the NCERA 217 was approved for a five year term, so that USDA would have funding to support the participation through each states agricultural experiment station. Reviewed NCERA 217 objectives: 1. Evaluate the integrated impact of drainage design, agronomic management practices and water quality, especially on nitrate. 2. Investigate water quality impacts from manure application on drained agricultural land. 3. Assess other aspects, such as salinity, feedstock production, bioenergy, and greenhouse gas production in drained agricultural lands. 4. Develop strategies to communicate between science and policy. (e.g., Such as extension publication on controlled drainage written by Jane F.) Station Reports: Station reports (see attached) were given by Eileen Kladivko (IN), Larry Brown (OH), Dan Jaynes (IA), Matt Helmers (IA), Kelly Nelson (MO), Roxanne Johnson (ND), Xinhua Jia (ND), Christopher Hay (SD), Mohamed Youssef (NC), and Larry Geohring (NY). Guests Bruce Shewfelt (Canada), and Sri Ranjan (Canada) also discussed the on-going controlled drainage research in Manitoba. Red River Valley Mini-Symposia and Tour: A mini-symposium and field tour to learn about drainage research and issues relevant to the Red River Valley Region was held on June 8 and 9. The included the following speakers and their topics: 1. Dave Dewald from ND NRCS presented Commonly asked tiling questions. 2. Ron Wiederholt from NDSU Carrington Experimental Center presented Farmer driven water quality management. 3. Han Kandel from NDSU Plant Sciences Department presented Agronomic benefit of tile drainage. 4. Frank Casey from NDSU Soil Sciences Department presented Monitoring subsurface drainage for estrogens from fields receiving manure. 5. Larry Luick from ND Richland County presented Drainage permitting status in ND. 6. Gary Feyereisen from USDA ARS St. Paul presented Manure application effects on tile drainage water quality. 7. Thomas Scherer from NDSU Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department presented Hydrology of field scale tile drainage in the RRV. 8. Corey Hansen from MN Red Lake Watershed District presented MN Red Lake Watershed tile drainage project. On the tour, tour stops included visiting: 1. Controlled drainage and subirrigation research site at Zimmerman Farm in Glyndon, MN. 2. Hans Kandels controlled drainage agronomy research plots at north Fargo, ND. 3. Roxanne Johnsons water quality monitoring site in Casselton, ND. 4. Ron Wiederholts Discovery Farm at Embden, ND. NRCS Representatives report: Paul Sweeney and Jerry Walker reported on formation of an NRCS, Phase II, Drainage Water Management (DWM) Team. The objective of the team is to increased adoption and application of agricultural Drainage Water Management. The Team action plan can be found at their website (http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/water.html). Seven key components of the plan include: communication, technology, training, policy, programs, wildlife habitat, and outcomes. A national summit on assessing state of DWM science and technology will be held in October. For this committee, possible collaborations would be on (1) sharing of DRAINMOD crop, weather, and soil input files; (2) review and discussion of drainage soil interpretations; (3) development of T25 values use of DRAINMOD on single counties in IA, WI, and MN for use with Skaggs lateral effects assessment tool; (4) tracking down available maps, reports, and databases for use in identifying potential focus areas; and (5) securing training recommendations, materials, courses, and instruction from academia, extension, and industry where appropriate. Business meeting #2: 1. Secretary elected: Eileen Kladivko nominated Tim Harrigan from Michigan State University to be the next committee secretary. Larry Brown seconded. Dan Jaynes called to move forward and all were in favor of Tim to be the next secretary. 2. Next meeting place: possible in Michigan with some Canadian and industry involvement in that area. East Lansing has previously held an International Conference on Subirrigation and Controlled Drainage (in 1991) and some members were on a tour to visit some drainage and subirrigation sites at that time. It would be interesting to go back and visit those places. A dairy farm near the Ohio border was also mentioned as a possible tour site. ASABE has also met in Michigan before, and there were many good spots for a tour. Tim Harrigan and Xinhua Jia would finalize the next meeting details. 3. Meeting time: prefer last week of March or early April before the planting season starts. However, for some members with teaching appointment, it would be difficult to attend. 4. Midterm review: past chairs/vice chairs would put together the report using past and current annual reports. Need to emphasize the impact of this group, particularly on large grant generated by committee members. 5. Award nomination: any volunteers to help put together and submit the award nomination materials? 6. Collaboration on grant writing: it would be difficult for the entire committee to put together a project. However, each committee member is encouraged to form as a sub-group with geographic similarity, and proposal availability to work on a proposal. 7. ASABE standard: Gary Feyereisen indicated that Design, Installation and Operation of Water Table Management Systems for Subirrigation/Controlled Drainage in Humid Regions, ASAE EP479, is up for revision. This group would be asked to help. The members of NCERA 217 thanked Larry Geohring, Xinhua Jia and other persons in ND for coordinating the meeting, the Red River Valley Drainage Mini-Symposium, and the tour. The meeting was adjourned at 12:30 PM on June 9, 2011. Respectfully Submitted: Xinhua Jia NCERA217 Secretary 2011