Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

SERA-46: Framework for Nutrient Reduction Strategy Collaboration:

The Role for Land Grant Universities

Outputs and Outcomes Report for FY19

Objectives

1. Establish and strengthen relationships that can serve the missions of multiple organizations addressing nutrient management and environmental quality.

Outputs

• Watershed Leadership Summit was held in February 2019 in Long Beach, MS

• SERA 46 members attended quarterly conference calls with the Hypoxia Task Force Coordinating Committee where they co-planned the Spring 2020 Hypoxia Task Force Meeting and SERA-46 meeting in Washington DC at the EPA headquarters

• SERA 46 met as a group in Baton Rouge in January 2019 to plan, develop renewal proposal and to develop 2018 Report of Accomplishments

• SERA 46 leadership met Hypoxia Task Force in May 2019. HTF meeting was postponed from February due to travel issues associated with weather

• Multi-State Synthesis Report - Ioannis Ziogas, Mississippi State University Ronald Cossman, Mississippi State University Richard Ingram, Mississippi State University Mae Davenport, University of Minnesota Ken Genskow, University of Wisconsin. Civic Engagement and Environmental Stewardship in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin Area: Synthesis Report.  December 21, 2018.  This publication was developed under Cooperative Agreement 83675601 awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

• Members of SERA 46 continued to work with members of NC1190 to advance social science research to improve nutrient management. In particular, they are doing a joint research study to understand how nutrient management strategies were developed and how they are being implemented. This work is being done in the Upper Mississippi states.

• SERA-46 is establishing a connection with a research team at University of Wisconsin-Madison that is conducting cutting-edge modeling and policy research to support efforts to achieve sustainable food, bioenergy, and water systems in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems (INFEWS) program, and it is seeking the collaboration of SERA-46 and Hypoxia Task Force members to inform their research inputs and implications, to help ensure the research supports basin-wide goals for water quality, while also advancing scientific knowledge. The project liaison, Jenny Seifert, is a watershed outreach specialist at UW-Madison Division of Extension and has already met once with SERA-46 about the project. The project is in its first year, and there is a lot of potential for productive collaboration and impact in the region, particularly with the input of SERA-46. Through building a relationship with the research team at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, SERA 46 members partnered to obtain grant funding for Sustaining Agricultural Landscapes in the Upper Mississippi River Basin – National Science Foundation Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems (INFEWS) – Power $350,332 (total $760,897 – Kucharik PI).

• SERA-46 members collaborated with other multistate committees sharing nutrient reduction priorities, including NCERA-217, Drainage design and management practices to improve water quality (Jane Frankenberger, Matt Helmers), and NC 1190 Catalysts for Water Resources Protection and Restoration: Applied Social Science Research (Ken Genskow).

• SERA 46 member Jane Frankenberger participated in a national workshop on EPA’s National Water Reuse Strategy, in order to provide information on the potential inclusion of the new practice of drainage water recycling.

Outcomes

• Building on the success of the Great Lakes to Gulf Watershed Leadership Summit in 2018, members of the Southern Extension-Research Activity-46 (SERA-46) team hosted a second leadership summit in 2019 in Long Beach, Mississippi in February 2019 and brought together farmers, farm advisors, fishermen, state and federal agencies, universities, and NGOs to share ideas and develop partnerships to tackle nutrient losses in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya River basin (MARB). Over 40 participants from 13 states heard presentations on state nutrient reduction strategy progress and Gulf Coast conservation research, and brainstormed solutions to increasing adoption of conservation practices.

• SERA 46 will be meeting with the Hypoxia Task Force in February 2020 at EPA Headquarters in DC.

• The Synthesis report on Civic Engagement and Environmental Stewardship in the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin Area developed the following recommendations: maintain and expand the collaborative network created by this project, develop a programmatic research program on Environmental Civil Engagement (ECE) measures, and establish a common repository of ECE-driven data.

• Long term Outcomes in Progress:
• Increase knowledge base among LGU and HTF/CC members on effective implementation of science-based approaches that reduce nutrient losses to the environment.
• Increased understanding of nutrient reduction strategies that can be employed across states.
• Increased collaboration among LGUs and HTF member agencies, as well as other public and private stakeholders.
• Increased sharing of nutrient reduction strategies across states.
• Strengthened relationships and communication between LGUs and HTF/CC members.
• Development of innovative solutions to nutrient losses, including working involvement of stakeholders in implementing those solutions.
• Better articulation and communication of current science, and science-based approaches, that reduce nutrient losses to the environment, including areas of broad agreement and those with diverse points of view.
• A shift in narrative and problem framing from traditional unilateral positions to collaborative thought-leading dialogue around reducing nutrient losses for societal and environmental benefits.

2. Strengthen the knowledge base for discovery of new tools and practices as well as for the continual validation of recommended practices.

Outputs

• Edge of Field monitoring to determine the impact and effectiveness of soil and water conservation practices on the quality of runoff leaving agricultural fields was conducted on Discovery Farms in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Arkansas and on REACH farms in Mississippi. Kentucky (Blue Water Program) established 16 edge-of-field monitoring sites in FY2019.

• Developed two a Discovery Farm virtual Field Trip in August 2019 to discuss soil and water conservation practices including the use of cover crops, edge-of-field monitoring, minimum tillage, irrigation water management and partnerships. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVbVMIWcjis&t=1189s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTgOe7zwuGs&t=2648s

• Developed a Soil and Water Conservation Virtual Field Trip on increasing irrigation efficiency and reducing runoff using soil moisture sensors, computerized design for furrow irrigation. Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG902Z95GKc

Outcomes

• Videos have been viewed by 864 people
• In Indiana, 38 conservation professionals were trained through the Indiana Watershed Leadership Academy, which is a 5-month online and in-person course

• Long term outcomes in progress:
• An increased understanding and comprehension of scientific issues by the HTF/CC through the engagement and interaction with the SERA committee.
• A broader awareness and understanding of research efforts for all SERA/HTF/CC members across the 12 states.
• An increase in research protocol sharing among faculty in the Mississippi basin states.
• Greater collaboration of researchers across state borders as indicated by research publications, technology applications, symposium, etc.
• Advances in science-based public policy due to more robust monitoring and evaluation research.
• More consistent and improved understanding of best management practices (BMPs) effectiveness, modeling tools, and protocols due to multi-state research collaborations.           

3. Improve the coordination and delivery of educational programming and increase the implementation effectiveness of nutrient management strategies for agricultural and non-agricultural audiences.

Outputs

• Watershed Leadership video on Farmers Helping Fisheries video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bPnLrqzaH0&t=1s

• Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Community: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4qdFWhzMbU

• Farmer to Farmer Education - July 25, 2019 Soil Health Management Systems Workshop, AACD on behalf of ASHA coordinated tour bus, starting location at the Brinkley Convention Center, tour of Chappell Farm, lunch at Nick’s in Carlisle, Tour of Bevis Farm and return travel to Brinkley Convention Center. Adam Chappell cotton mentor farmer, Robby Bevis mentor farmer, with Mike Daniels, Bill Robertson and Matt Fryer assistance with David Lamm assisting from the Soil Health Institute. 62 in attendance

• Farmer to farmer Education - August 13, 2019 Soil Health Management Systems workshop McGehee, Arkansas Steve Stevens farmer mentor;  25 in attendance

• Farmer to Farmer multistate grant funded ($1,088,025 million) to help facilitate farmers educating other farmers on soil and water conservation practices that protect water quality. I. Dr. Beth Baker, Mississippi State.  In addition to developing resources for and connections between farmers, this project also involves the implementation of a cover crop program as well as edge-of-field practice installation, including bioreactors and saturated buffers.

• Missouri Extension has a statewide strip trial research effort in place for several years looking at proper nutrient utilization.  https://extension2.missouri.edu/programs/strip-trial-program/strip-trial-about with John Lory as the lead.

• A curriculum on cultivating farmer leadership in watershed management is in development. This training arose in response to the needs assessment conducted by the project team on training needs for farmers. It is being developed as an “off-the-shelf” curriculum that Extensions specialists, watershed coordinators, NGOs, and other groups can use to engage farmers and encourage their leadership. With one pilot run under its belt, conducted with a group of farmer leaders in Arkansas, and another pilot in the works, the curriculum is benefitting from feedback and refinement by our pilot partners. For the second pilot, the project team has partnered with American Farmland Trust in Ohio to conduct the training with a fledgling farmer-led watershed group in the Upper Scioto. The curriculum promises to help empower farmers to see their place as leaders in watershed management and increase their involvement in local efforts.

• The project resurrected and revitalized a newsletter for watershed professionals, called The Confluence, to cultivate a new generation of watershed leaders. This quarterly newsletter informs its subscribers with insights, success stories, and opportunities that enhance knowledge and leadership capacity in watershed management. Two issues went out in the 2019 fiscal year to over 110 subscribers, who were attendees of the Great Lakes to Gulf Watershed Leadership Summits. For the upcoming fiscal year, we have developed a strategy to grow newsletter readership and maintain it as a thread throughout SERA-46 projects aimed at supporting watershed leadership.

• The team produced a report identifying needs for facilitating farmer leadership in watershed management, called “Fostering and Facilitating Farmer Leadership in Watershed Management Projects.” The needs assessment outlines three ways farmers can exhibit leadership and six types of support farmers need to be able to lead successfully. The report can be found here: https://northcentralwater.org/files/2019/07/MARBreport-7-2019.pdf

• Linda Prokopy’s research continued to add to our understanding of how best to conduct educational programming. In particular, reviews of both the qualitative and quantitative literature on conservation adoption published over the last 30 years, advanced our understanding of factors that lead to increased uptake of practices. Additional work highlighted the role of working with the private sector and identified barriers to promoting conservation adoption on rented lands.  Publications are listed below:

• Prokopy, Linda S., Kristin Floress, J.Gordon Arbuckle, Sarah P. Church, Francis R. Eanes, Yuling Gao*, Benjamin M. Gramig, Pranay Ranjan, Ajay S. Singh. 2019. Adoption of Agricultural Conservation Practices in the United States: Evidence from 35 Years of Quantitative Literature. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. 74(5): 520-534.
• Church, Sarah P., Nicholas Babin, Belyna Bentlage, Michael Dunn, Jessica D. Ulrich-Schad, Pranay Ranjan, Joe Magner, Eileen McLellan, Susi Stephan, Mark D. Tomer, Linda S. Prokopy. 2019. The Beargrass Story: Utilizing Social Science to Evaluate and Learn from the “Watershed” Approach. Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education. 167: 78-96.
• Ranjan, Pranay, Sarah P. Church, Kristin Floress, Linda S. Prokopy. 2019. Synthesizing Conservation Motivations and Barriers: What Have We Learned from Qualitative Studies of Farmers’ Behaviors in the United States? Society and Natural Resources. 32(11): 1171-1199.
• Ranjan, Pranay, Ajay S. Singh, Mark Tomer, Ann Lewandowski, Linda S. Prokopy. 2019. Lessons Learned from Using a Decision-Support Tool for Precision Placement of Conservation Practices in Six Agricultural Watersheds in the US Midwest Journal of Environmental Management. Journal of Environmental Management, 239: 57-65.
• Eanes, Francis R., Ajay S. Singh, Brian R. Bulla, Pranay Ranjan, Mary Fales, Benjamin Wickerham, Patrick J. Doran, Linda S. Prokopy. 2019. Crop advisers as conservation intermediaries: Perceptions and policy implications for relying on nontraditional partners to increase U.S. farmers’ adoption of soil and water conservation practices. Land Use Policy, 81: 360-370.
• Ranjan, Pranay, Chloe Wardropper, Francis Eanes, Sheila Reddy, Seth Harden, Yuta Masuda, Linda Prokopy. 2019. Understanding Barriers and Opportunities for Adoption of Conservation Practices on Rented Farmland in the U.S. Land Use Policy, 80: 214-223.

• Missouri Extension is working to re-implement a manure and nutrient management education academy.  This has been dormant for nearly 10 years.
  

Outcomes

• Video viewed by 771 as of April 7, 2020
• 110 Subscribers to The Confluence

• Long term outcomes in progress:
• Through the forums described above, LGUs will advance science-based, solution-oriented conversations addressing point and nonpoint sources of N and P, and continue dialogue with the agricultural community at state and national levels to support the development and implementation of state nutrient strategies.
• Improve capacity for engaging and educating agribusinesses, farmers, and urban and urbanizing communities about water quality and the state’s nutrient strategy.
• Agricultural stakeholders will be better equipped to participate in state nutrient strategies as business leaders and citizen stewards of soil and water resources.
• Participating agencies will have a greater understanding of the economic and logistical challenges in agricultural nutrient management as well as potential solutions to those challenges.
• Effective implementation of science-based approaches to nutrient management that reduces nutrient losses to the environment.

Funding Outcomes

Since the formation of SERA-46, members have worked to develop funding to support efforts.  To date over $3,000,000 in grants have been funded:

• Publications

• Clark, J., K.S. Veum; F.G. Fernández, N.R. Kitchen; J.J. Camberato, P.R. Carter, R.B. Ferguson, D.W. Franzen, D.E. Kaiser, C.A.M. Laboski, E.D. Nafziger, C.J. Rosen, J.E. Sawyer, and J.F. Shanahan. 2019. US Midwest soil and weather conditions influence anaerobic potentially mineralizable nitrogen. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 83:1137–1147.

• Ransom, C., N.R. Kitchen; J.J. Camberato, P.R. Carter, R.B. Ferguson, F.G. Fernández, W. Franzen, C.A.M Laboski, D.B. Myers, E.D. Nafziger, J.E. Sawyer, and J.F. Shanahan. 2019. Statistical and machine learning methods evaluated for incorporating soil and weather into corn nitrogen recommendations. Comp. and Elect. Agric. 164: 104872.

• Vetsch J.A., G.W. Randall, and F.G. Fernández. Nitrate loss in subsurface drainage from a corn-soybean rotation as affected by nitrogen rate and nitrapyrin. J Environ. Qual. 48: 988-994.

• Spackman, J.A., F.G. Fernández, J.A. Coulter, D.E. Kaiser, G.D. Paiao. 2019. Soil texture and precipitation influence optimal time of nitrogen fertilization for corn. Agron. J. 111:2018-2030.
• Sharpley, Daniels, Slaton, Berry, Burk, Hallmark and Riley. Monitoring Potassium Losses in Runoff on Arkansas Discovery Farms: Preliminary Findings.  In Wayne Sabbe Soil Fertility Report Series.  Report Series 649.  Nathan Slaton, Ed.   University of Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.  35-42.

• Fryer, L. Berry, P. Webb, L. Riley, A. Sharpley, M. Daniels, and N. Slaton. 2020. Spatial Variability of Soil-Test Potassium and Other Soil Properties in 10 Arkansas Discovery Farm Fields. N.A. Slaton, editor, Wayne E. Sabbe Arkansas soil fertility studies 2019. Res Ser.___. Univ. of Arkansas Agric. Exp. Stn., Fayetteville. Not yet accessible online.

• Daniels, M.B.,A.N. Sharpley, B. Robertson, E. Gbur, L. Riley, P. Webb, B.L. Singleton, A. Free, L. Berry, C. Hallmark and T. Nehls.   Nutrients in runoff from cotton production in the Lower Mississippi River Basin: An on-farm study.  Agrosyst. Geosci. Environ. 2:190033. Available at https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/age/articles/2/1/190033.

• Daniels, M., A.N. Sharpley, B. Robertson, P. Webb,L. Riley, A. Free, and M. Freyaldenhoven.   Seasonal nutrient losses in runoff from cotton.  Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series 30:95-102.

• Sharpley, A.N.2019. The future of farming: Links between lab and land will be critical.  Scientific American.  November 22, 2019. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-future-of-farming/

• Sharpley, A.N., M.J. Helmers, P.J.A. Kleinman, K. King, A. Leytem, and N. Nelson.   Managing crop nutrients to achieve water quality goals.  J. Soil Water Conserv.  74(5):91A-101A. doi:10.2489/jswc.74.5.91A.

• Burger, L.W., Kristine O. Evans Mark D. McConnell and Leslie M. Burger. 2019.  Private Lands Conservation: A Vision for the Future.  Wildlife Society Bulletin 1–10; 2019; DOI: 10.1002/wsb.1001

• Peterson, H., Williams, M., Frankenberger, J., King, K., McGrath, J., Moody, L., Ribaudo, M., Strock, J., Johnson, K. and Nelson, N., 2019. Reducing the impacts of agricultural nutrients on water quality across a changing landscape. Issue Paper-Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST), https://www.cast-science.org/publication/reducing-the-impacts-of-agricultural-nutrients-on-water-quality-across-a-changing-landscape/.