Cropping Systems & Water QualityUSDA Soil & Water Conservation Research since 1929

ARS – Columbia, Missouri

ARS ResearchinNatural Resources & Sustainable Agricultural Systems

494 Scientists159 Research Projects62 Locations

Water Availability & Watershed Management

Climate Change, Soils, and Emissions

Bioenergy and Energy Alternatives

Agricultural and Industrial Byproducts

Pasture, Forage, and Rangeland Systems

Agricultural System Competitiveness and Sustainability

Water Availability & Watershed Management

Effectiveness of Conservation Practices

Irrigation Water ManagementDrainage Water Management

Systems Integrated Erosion and

Sedimentation TechnologiesWatershed Management, Water

Availability, and Ecosystem Restoration

Water Quality Protection Systems

Total Projects: 39Total Locations: 26Total Scientists: 133

Climate Change, Soils, and EmissionsEnable Improvements of Air

Quality via Management and Mitigation of Emissions from Agricultural Operations

Develop Knowledge and Technologies for Reducing Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Concentrations Through Management of Agricultural Emissions and Carbon Sequestration

Enable Agriculture to Adapt to Climate Change

Maintain and Enhance Soil ResourcesTotal Projects: 38

Total Locations: 29Total Scientists: 99

Bioenergy and Energy Alternatives

Feedstock Development (Enable new varieties and hybrids of bioenergy feedstocks with optimal traits)

Sustainable Feedstock Production Systems (Enable new optimal practices and systems that maximize the sustainable yield of high-quality bioenergy feedstocks)

Biorefining (Enable new, commercially preferred biorefining technologies)Total Projects: 14

Total Locations: 6Total Scientists: 45

Agricultural and Industrial ByproductsManagement,

Enhancement, and Utilization of Manure

Nutrients and Resources

Manure Pathogens and Pharmaceutically Active Compounds (PACs)

Atmospheric EmissionsDeveloping Beneficial

Uses of Agricultural, Industrial and Municipal ByproductsTotal Projects: 16

Total Locations: 14Total Scientists: 50

Pasture, Forage, and Rangeland Systems

Rangeland Management Systems to Improve Economic Viability and Enhance the Environment

Pasture Management Systems to Improve Economic Viability and Enhance the Environment

Sustainable Harvested Forage Systems for Livestock,

Bioenergy and Bioproducts

Sustainable Turf SystemsTotal Projects: 36Total Locations: 24Total Scientists: 116

Agricultural SystemCompetitiveness and Sustainability

Agronomic Crop Production Systems

Specialty Crop Production Systems

Integrated Whole Farm Production Systems

Integrated Technology and Information to Increase Customer Problem Solving Capacity

Total Projects: 16Total Locations: 16Total Scientists: 50

How We Got Here1929 USDA

Bureau of Soils & Chemistry, Bureau of Public Roads

1930 Bethany Erosion Plots started1933 Dept of Interior - Soil Erosion Service1935 USDA-Soil Conservation Service 1937 McCredie Erosion Plots started1953 USDA-ARS 1961 North Central Hydrology Research Watershed

Added Treynor IA Deep Loess station

1971 Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed 1988 Merged Watershed and Crop Production1990 MSEA project, followed by ASEQ project2000 Irrigation research started at Delta Center2003 CEAP project

People

• John Sadler, Research Leader

• Claire Baffaut, Hydrologist

• Newell Kitchen, Soil fertility

• Bob Lerch, Soil chemistry

• Bob Kremer, Microbiology

• Ken Sudduth, Sensor engineering

• Earl Vories, Irrigation engineering

Scientific and Administrative Support Staff

• Technical expertise: – Production

operations– Hydrology– Soil fertility, physics,

and microbiology– Water and soil

chemistry– Molecular biology– Machining and

fabrication

– Electronics – GPS– Computer

programming– Modeling– Databases– GIS– CAD– Image analysis– Statistical analysis

Facilities

• Offices and laboratories– Agricultural Engineering– Anheuser-Busch Natural Resources– Delta Research Center

• Support buildings– Field Research Building, South Farm– Tee Building, South Farm– Centralia Research Support Building

Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed

• General description– Start of record April 1971– Located north of Centralia– Area of 28 mile2 (72.5 km2)

• Measurements and flow sites– 3 stream weirs, Weir 1 remains in service– 3 fields with weirs, Field 1 remains in service– 30 plots 0.85 acre (0.34 ha)– 9 rain gages– Weather station– 5 Groundwater well nests

• Data in STEWARDS database system

Research in Other Space• MU South Farm– SPARC– N-sensing plots

• MU Bradford Farm– Rainfall simulator plots– Kremer plots

• Mark Twain Lake/Salt River basin CEAP• Tucker Prairie, Prairie Fork Cons. Area• MU Delta Research Center–Marsh, Lee, Rhodes Farms

• Producer fields

• Division of Food Systems and Bioengineering – Biological Engineering– Agricultural Systems Management– WQ Extension – Delta Center Irrigation Engineering Extension

• School of Natural Resources– UM Center for Agroforestry– Soils, Environmental and Atmospheric Sciences– Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences

• Division of Plant Sciences– Agronomy– Soils Extension– Delta Center DPS researchers

Leveraging with MU

Leveraging outside projects

• CEAP

• Mississippi River Basin Initiative

• Active light sensing for N management

• CAP biomass proposal

• White River Irrigation District

• Howard G. Buffet Foundation

• Brazil Center for Advanced Studies in Weed Research, Univ.of Maringá

• LTAR network planning

In Conclusion

• Productive staff with key skillsets

• Good facilities

• Modern instruments and laboratories

• Key long-term infrastructure

• Many stakeholders

• Highly collaborative research

• Access to very large talent pool in MU

• Acknowledged as productive unit