David I find that many do not understand the "how" of how nitrates get into the water shed. The wood chip filters are and example. They do act as filter but they also give off nitrates as they decompose. This is not just the nitrates that they filter either.
An example is a 120 acre field/farm next to me. It has been in CRP for 30 years now. I have the data from water samples pulled from the tile lines coming off that farm. These were part of the first water/nutrient plans we started in 2000. At that time they shows a slow decline for the first few years. I assume this was just the residual fertilizer from when that ground was farmed. Then the nitrate levels have shown a slow but stead increase. Not like you would see of a field fertilized but still they are increasing. The owner and I know nothing has been applied to the farm and that there is no water/nitrate coming from other farm ground onto his ground. His is the Highest ground around. We think that it is the ground reverting back to the plains ecosystem from years ago. That the "natural" decomposing of the grasses releases nitrates. There is some research on this but it has not been going long enough to get some real answers.
Detections technology has out paced the understanding of what all causes issues. The trouble is that in today's PC culture any research that does not support the current agenda never gets funding. So if it does not show industry or farms as being the cause/evil ones it never see the light of day.
An example of this is that no till does not help water quality as much as originally thought when you look at it from a nutrient retention stand point. Yes no till does wonders in erosion control. Chemical and nutrient retention not so much. The soils internal pore structure moves water down to tile lines very fast. In no till ecosystems these pores are much more active then in tilled systems. So surfaces applied chemicals and fertilizers can hit the tile lines faster than in a conventional system. There was/is a study of this done at the Iowa university ten years ago. I know about it because some of my land was tested in the study. It was used as the conventional test area. Part of being involved with this got me a final copy of the study results. It got a little bit of publicity and then nothing. You can not find much about it now. It attacked the HOLY grail of conservation" NO TILL". So any additional study along these lines has zero support in the college academic community. The results did not support the PC narrative.
It is not rocket science. We farm some seriously steep ground. Farming practices can easily control erosion and nutrient usage/retention. We are beat up on both sides. The Farm fence row to fence row guys scream that our grass waters ways, filter strips, contour dams and etc. are all unnecessary. Then the tree huggers scream that since we do not use total no till we are evil. So a lot of common sense stuff does not get studied or taught.
I trust nothing that any one publishes anymore. The Lefts has became so entrenched at the colleges/universities that you get bias studies and agendas. Then big corporate like Bayer/Monsanto spout so much BS and hide things just for financial reason that much of what they say is suspect too. Then Government is just as skewed by the Liberal PC culture on one side and BIG money corporations on the other. So your left with not much truthful, scientific verified information.
Upload one or more videos to your post. Photo and video filesizes should be less than 5MB. Formats allowed are gif, jpg, png, ogg, mp4, mov, and avi. Be sure to use filenames without spaces or special characters, and filetypes of 3 digits lower case.
We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. [ About Us ]
Today's Featured Article - Third Brush Generators - by Chris Pratt. While I love straightening sheet metal, cleaning, and painting old tractors, I use every excuse to avoid working on the on the electrics. I find the whole process sheer mystery. I have picked up and attempted to read every auto and farm electrics book with no improvement in the situation. They all seem to start with a chapter entitled "Theory of Electricity". After a few paragraphs I usually close the book and go back to banging out dents. A good friend and I were recently discussing our tractor electrical systems when he stated "I figure it all comes back to applying Ohms Law". At this point
... [Read Article]
All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy
TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.
