Eastern Ontario study could determine where tile drain nitrogen goes

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

contributed photo: Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry MP Guy Lauzon and Lawrence Levere, South Nation Conservation authority board chair are pictured with a controlled tile drainage unit. 

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

A $600,000 Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada grant announced Wednesday will pay for a four-year study to test the effectiveness of tile drainage control structures. The money, granted to the South Nation Conservation Authority near Finch, will be used to assess whether keeping water in tiles saves nitrogen for plant uptake or simply allows it to be released into the atmosphere.

Ronda Boutz, water quality coordinator for the authority, says the control structures are designed to hold back moisture during the growing season by regulating tile flow. The study aims to find out ”how to best manage these systems so we have improved water quality, improved yield and reduction of greenhouse gases.” Work done a year or two ago by AAFC, she says, seemed to show that nitrogen that remained in tiles was being taken up by plants and did not gas off.

“What we really want to do with the funding announced this morning is take a closer look at where the nitrogen is going,” Boutz says. “If we manage to use the systems correctly, how much could it reduce greenhouse gas emissions?” She adds they will be looking at “an optimal way to set the levels in the structures so we don’t compromise the crop yield, yet maintain the nitrogen in the water.”

The tile control structures they use are produced in the United States and cost between $600 and $800 each, depending on the size. Boutz says the total cost with installation is about $1,000.

 Local farmers and researchers from the universities of Waterloo and Ottawa are involved in the study along with the conservation authority.  The study began last fall and is expected to wrap up by August 2015.

Funding for the project comes from the Agricultural Greenhouse Gases Program focusing on the development of on-farm greenhouse gas mitigation technologies. BF