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Agricultural run-off, including soil erosion, nutrient loss from fertilizers and animal manure, bacteria from animal manure and pesticides are the largest stressors to water quality of America’s streams and rivers. These crops are also the largest consumer of increasingly scarce river water in the Western United States.
Others have been able to relieve the problem through water treatments and removal of affected hay and manure. This gives a blueprint of the situation and provides an opportunity to consider mitigation strategies such as changing the rotation of livestock, cleaning up the water, or trying a different crop.”
So, when I heard of the mid-scale anaerobic digester being installed at Dickenson College Organic Farm as a demonstration of how small dairy farms can utilize manure and other waste streams to produce on farm energy, I was eager for the opportunity to visit the farm and help spread the word to other farms.
These practices include reducing or eliminating tilling of soil, planting “cover crops” that grow during the off-season and are not harvested, improving how farmers use fertilizer and manure, and planting trees. Better manure management is among the climate-smart practices the USDA is funding in the partnerships. But it should be.
Large livestock facilities generate more liquid manure, which emits methane, a short-lived but potent greenhouse gas. The crops grown to feed those livestock, mostly corn and soybeans, are especially fertilizer intensive.
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