Download Lecture 2. Agricultural Pollution Control in the Baltic Sea with

Lecture 2. Agricultural Pollution Control in the Baltic Sea
with Special Emphasis on Manure Management
Prepared by Assoc. Prof. Philip Chiverton, SLU
and
Göran Carlsson, Head of Research, Swedish Institute of Agricultural and
Environmental Engineering
Agricultural Pollution control
”Measures employed to prevent the loss of nutrients
(nitrogen and phosphorous) from agricultural land to
ground and surface waters”
These measures are usually defined in Best Management
Practices (BMP).
Best Management Practices
1. Crop rotation
Crops are changed year by year in a planned sequence.
Crop rotation is a common practice on sloping soils because
of its potential for soil saving. Rotation also reduces fertilizer
needs, because alfalfa and other legumes replace some of
the nitrogen corn and other grain crops remove.
Grass and legumes in a rotation protect water quality by
preventing excess nutrients or chemicals from entering water
supplies.
Meadow or small grains cut soil erosion dramatically.
Crop rotations add diversity to an operation.
Emerging sugar beet (left) and oil seed rape (right) in rotation
near the Baltic sea (background)
2. Conservation Tillage (30 percent or more crop
residue left, after planting).
Any tillage and planting system that covers 30 percent or
more of the soil surface with crop residue, after planting,
to reduce soil erosion by water. Where soil erosion by wind
is the primary concern, any system that maintains at least
1,000 pounds per acre of flat, small grain residue equivalent
on the surface throughout the critical wind erosion period.
Rows of soybean plants emerge from a field covered
with wheat residue from the previous harvest.
3. Permanent vegetative cover
Conservation buffers are small areas or strips of land in
vegetation, designed to slow water runoff, provide shelter
and stabilize riparian areas.
Strategically placed in the agricultural landscape, buffers can
effectively mitigate the movement of sediment, nutrients, and
pesticides within farm fields.
Buffers include: contour buffer strips, field borders,
filter strips (especially adjacent to rivers, ditches etc.),
windbreaks, and wetlands.
A small amount of land in buffers can assist producers in
meeting both economic and environmental goals
Contour buffer strips of perenneal grass with wider cultivated
strips that are farmed on the contour
4. Strip Cropping.
Growing row crops, forages, small grains or fallow in a
systematic arrangement of equal width strips across a field.
o Reduces soil erosion from water and transport of sediment
and other water-borne contaminants
o Reduces soil erosion from wind
o Protects growing crops from damage by wind-borne soil
particles
Strip cropping – growing crops in a systematic arrangement
of strips across the field to reduce soil erosion, reduce
particulate emissions into the air and improve water quality.
Best Management Practices
1. Crop rotation
Crops are changed year by year in a planned sequence.
Crop rotation is a common practice on sloping soils because
of its potential for soil saving. Rotation also reduces fertilizer
needs, because alfalfa and other legumes replace some of
the nitrogen corn and other grain crops remove.
Grass and legumes in a rotation protect water quality by
preventing excess nutrients or chemicals from entering water
supplies.
Meadow or small grains cut soil erosion dramatically.
Crop rotations add diversity to an operation.