Progress 02/24/97 to 09/30/10
Outputs
This project improved the efficency of planning and decision-making in the areas of agronomic and environmental management.
Impacts
This project provided leadership in designing and fine-tuning the format and procedural approach used by professional soil science societies in thier budget and finance deliberations.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/05 to 12/31/05
Outputs
The sustainability of agricultural ecosystems depends on the ability of agricultural and environmental science protection. This project continues to address the sustainability of agricultural ecosystems including dairy farms, and is currently focusing on broad-based outreach aspects.
Impacts
This project has improved the efficiency of planning and decision-making in the areas of agronomic and environmental management. For example, the project provides leadership in designing and fine-tuning the format and procedural approach used by professional soil science societies in their budget and finance deliberations.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/04 to 12/31/04
Outputs
This project continues to address the sustainability of agricultural ecosystems, including broad-based practical and fundamental chemical and ecological aspects.
Impacts
This project has improved the efficiency of planning and decision-making in the areas of agronomic and environmental management. For example, the project provides leadership in designing and fine-tuning the format and procedural approach used by professional soil science societies in their budget and finance deliberations.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/03 to 12/31/03
Outputs
The sustainability of agricultural ecosystems depends on the ability of agricultural and environmental science protection. This project continues to address the sustainability of agricultural ecosystems including dairy farms, and is currently focusing on broad-based outreach aspects.
Impacts
This project has improved the efficiency of planning and decision-making in the areas of agronomy, crops and soils. For example, the project provides leadership in redesigning and fine-tuning the format and procedural approach used by professional agronomy, crops and soil science societies in their budget and finance deliberations.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/02 to 12/31/02
Outputs
The sustainability of agricultural ecosystems depends on the ability of agricultural and environmental science practitioners and professional societies to integrate the theory and practice of agricultural production and environmental protection. This project has and continues to address the sustainability of a variety of agricultural ecosystems including dairy farms, and is currently focusing on broad-based outreach aspects.
Impacts
This project has improved the efficiency of planning and decision making in the areas of agronomy, crops and soils. For example, the project provides leadership in redesigning and fine tuning the format and procedural approach used by professional agronomy, crops and soil science societies in their budget and finance deliberations.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/00 to 12/31/00
Outputs
The survival of many dairy farms in the U.S. will depend on farmers' ability to comply with increasingly strict environmental regulations, especially those associated with phosphorus (P) management. The repeated importation of feed and fertilizer P has resulted in large positive P balances, excessive soil P accumulation, runoff and the pollution of surface and ground waters. Most efforts to improve P management focus on manure handling, storage, and land application. However, such 'rear-end' approaches neglect the effects of feeding practices and herd management on overall nutrient utilization and on-farm nutrient balances. Results from this three year project have shown that (1) dietary P and, therefore, manure P can be reduced by 25 to 30% without sacrificing milk production or quality, or the reproductive performance of cows; (2) most dairy producers feed excessive amounts of P; (3) feeding excess P increases dramatically the cropland needed for recycling manure,
and, also, greatly affects the number of cows a farm can keep, and the duration a farm can operate, before all cropland attains excessive levels of soil test P. According to new NRCS guidelines, manure should not be applied to cropland having excessive levels of soil test P. Also, we found that (4) the land application of manure derived from dairy cows fed a high P diet results in soluble P runoff dramatically higher than from plots amended with manure derived from cows fed a P adequate diet.
Impacts
This project has shown that substantial reductions in P accumulation and runoff from dairy farms can be derived from concomitant improvements in P feeding, resulting in less P imported, fed, and excreted, and from appropriate tillage regimes, which reduce P runoff. We anticipate management practices that will be suitable for reducing environmental impacts under most conditions where some feed is imported, dairy cows are fed primarily in confinement, and producers rely on their land base for recycling manure.
Publications
- Bundy, L.D., T.W. Andraski, J.M. Powell, J.S. Studnicka, and A.M. Ebeling. 2000. Management practice effects on phosphorus losses in runoff. pp. 23-34. In Proc. Wisconsin Fertilizer, Aglime & Pest Management Conference, Madison WI, January 18-20, 2000.
- Jackson-Smith, D. and J.M Powell. 2000. How Wisconsin dairy farmers feed their cows: Results of the 1999 Wisconsin Dairy Herd Feeding Study. Wisconsin Farm Research Summary No. 5. Program on Agricultural Technology Studies (PATS). University of Wisconsin-Madison. 16pp.
- Wu, Z. and L.D. Satter. 2000. Milk production and reproductive performance of dairy cows fed two concentrations of phosphorus for two years. J. Dairy Sci. 83:1052-1063.
- Wu, Z., L.D. Satter and R. Sojo. 2000. Milk production, reproductive performance, and fecal excretion of phosphorus by dairy cows fed three amounts of phosphorus. J. Dairy Sci. 83:1028-1041.
- Powell, J.M., L.D. Bundy, and D. Jackson-Smith. 2000. Whole-farm phosphorus management on dairy farms. Special Symposium. Phosphorus Management in Dairy Systems. p. 279. In Agronomy abstracts. ASA, Madison, WI.
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Progress 01/01/00 to 06/30/00
Outputs
The survival of many dairy farms in the U.S. will depend on farmers' ability to comply with increasingly strict environmental regulations, especially those associated with phosphorus (P) management. The repeated importation of feed and fertilizer P has resulted in large positive P balances, excessive soil P accumulation, runoff and the pollution of surface and ground waters. Most efforts to improve P management focus on manure handling, storage, and land application. However, such rear-end approaches neglect the effects of feeding practices and herd management on overall nutrient utilization and on-farm nutrient balances. Results from this three year project have shown that (1) dietary P and, therefore, manure P can be reduced by 25 to 30% without sacrificing milk production or quality, or the reproductive performance of cows; (2) most dairy producers feed excessive amounts of P; (3) feeding excess P increases dramatically the cropland needed for recycling manure,
and, also, greatly affects the number of cows a farm can keep, and the duration a farm can operate, before all cropland attains excessive levels of soil test P. According to new NRCS guidelines, manure should not be applied to cropland having excessive levels of soil test P. Also, we found that (4) the land application of manure derived from dairy cows fed a high P diet results in soluble P runoff dramatically higher than from plots amended with manure derived from cows fed a P adequate diet.
Impacts
This project has shown that substantial reductions in P accumulation and runoff from dairy farms can be derived from concomitant improvements in P feeding, resulting in less P imported, fed, and excreted, and from appropriate tillage regimes, which reduce P runoff. We anticipate management practices that will be suitable for reducing environmental impacts under most conditions where some feed is imported, dairy cows are fed primarily in confinement, and producers rely on their land base for recycling manure.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/99 to 12/31/99
Outputs
Many dairies in the U.S. continue to be land-based; that is, they produce most of their feed and use their land base to recycle manure nutrients through crops. However, to remain economically viable, many dairies are increasing herd size and importing more and more feed. The amounts of manure nutrients can quickly exceed field crop requirements. This can lead to disposal rather than an agronomic use of manure and subsequent nutrient build-up and losses to the environment. The survival of many dairies will depend on farmers' ability to comply with increasingly strict environmental regulations, especially those associated with the application of manure P to cropland. This survey was undertaken to determine the P feeding strategies of dairy producers in Wisconsin and identify the potential for reducing dietary P levels under farmer conditions. Of the 93 farms in the survey, 47 feed all lactating cows the same and 46 divide the lactating herd into 2 or 3 separate feeding
groups. Approximately 70% of the surveyed farms said they were self sufficient in forage (alfalfa and corn silage) and grain (corn and oats) production. On these farms, approximately 90% of the apparent DM and 72% of the P intake is derived from these homegrown feeds. Most of the remaining DM and P that is fed to the dairy herd is imported in the form of protein supplements, mineral mix and soybean meal. The average P contents of the forages and grain fed to dairy cows in Wisconsin are higher than the National Research Council's (NRC) book values used to formulate dairy diets. Well over half of the dairy cows are feed P well in excess of the NRC recommended amount. Approximately 20% of the surveyed farms feed less than the NRC recommendations. These results indicate that NRC recommends excessive dietary P levels, and corroborate recent experimental results at the DFRC that lower amounts of P could be fed without reductions in milk production. For cows fed similarily, there was a good
relationship (R2 of 0.55) between dietary P and manure P levels.
Impacts
This study showed that using NRC tabular values for forage P levels could contribute to overfeeding of P. Well over half of the dairy cows appear to be fed P in excess of what is needed for the milk production levels that are attained. The P content of feces may provide a good indicator of the P content of the diet.
Publications
- Powell, J.M., Z. Wu and L.D. Satter. 1999. Dairy diet effects on P cycles of cropland. Agronomy Abstracts, p. 62.
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Progress 01/01/98 to 12/31/98
Outputs
This project has focused on 2 research areas: (1) Soil and Manure Management Effects on N and P Cycles of Cropland: As farmers are increasingly regulated to shift manure applications from fields having high to fields having lower available P levels, soil organic matter (SOM), N and P dynamics may change profoundly. This project uses 15N-labeled manure to measure N mineralization directly in a series of soil-manure incubations and greenhouse studies using soils having a wide range of textures and levels of labile SOM, N and P due to previous manure management and in a long-term (6 year) field trial to evaluate the effects of the frequency and rate of manure application on N and P cycling in the manure/soil/crop continuum. (2) Dairy Diet Effects on Phosphorus Cycles of Cropland: Many dairy producers feed supplemental phosphorus (P) at 25 to 30% in excess of that required for maximum milk production. We have examined how the excessive supplementation of a dairy cow diet
with inorganic P affects the land required for recycling manure P through crops, and the ability of dairy farms to recycle manure P in view of new regulations that limit the land application of manure based on crop P requirements. For example, the annual addition of 6.8 kg P per cow to increase dietary P from 3.8 to 4.8 g kg-1 for a 90 cow herd on a 78 ha farm would create excessive soil test P levels in all fields within 38 years.
Impacts
This research provide approaches to the integration of basic, disciplinary science into a holistic assessment of how a change in nutrient management in one system component (e.g. feed) affects nutrient flow in other systems components (e.g. soils/crops), and how this information can be used to improve the profitability and environmental impacts of dairy.
Publications
- Powell, J.M. and Z. Wu. 1998. Labeling dairy feces and urine with 15N for nutrient cycling studies. P. 239. In Agronomy abstracts. ASA, Madison, WI.
- Powell, J.M., L.D. Satter, J.C. Converse, and L.G. Bundy. 1998. A systems approach to improving phosphorus management on dairy farms. p 255-258. Proc. Manure management in harmony with the environment. The Soil and Water Conservation Society, West North Central Region, February 10-12, 1998, Ames, IA.
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