DDC_Ag Mag_Spring 2021

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DeKalb County

SPRING 2021

GROWING EDUCATIONAL

OPPORTUNITIES AT KISHWAUKEE COLLEGE SEE PAGE 4

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DeKalb County

Table of Contents

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GROWING EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

Kishwaukee College offers an array of agriculture course options

GRAIN BIN ENTRAPMENT

Precautions can reduce risk for farm workers

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10

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312 BUSHELS PER ACRE BY 2075

Predicting 21st century Illinois corn yields

LOWER RISK OF SPRING FLOODING

Experts forecast better outlook in Northern Illinois this year

TRACKING NUTRIENT LOSS

Tile monitoring keeps tabs on quality of drainage water

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DeKalb County

Published by Shaw Media Project Manager: Lisa Angel

Design & Layout: Julie Barichello Articles and advertisements are property of Shaw Media. No portion of DeKalb County Ag Mag may be produced without written consent of the publisher.

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Growing EDUCATIONAL

OPPORTUNITIES

KISHWAUKEE COLLEGE OFFERS VARIETY IN AGRICULTURE COURSES Janet Gallagher, assistant professor of horticulture, works with Kishwaukee College students during a floral design class. Horticulture is one of the many agriculture-adjacent programs offered at Kish.

By BRETT HERMANN – Kishwaukee College

From farm to table and everything in between, agriculture plays a vital role in the local and global economy.

Kishwaukee College is training a new generation of workers to help meet the changing demands of the agriculture business.

Kish has recently revitalized its agriculture program and has modernized curriculums for ag, along with horticulture and diesel power programs.

“We had community and business inquiries about our ag offerings and we wanted to make sure we could find a connection to the current landscape of ag,” said Chase Budziak, Kishwaukee College Dean of Instruction. “And there were a lot of agriculture students within our district at our high schools.”

MEETING THE COMMUNITY’S NEEDS

Kish has made it a point of emphasis to tailor its curriculum to the needs

of the community. The local workforce needs skilled professionals to take on roles in agriculture, but the traditional family farm is not what it once was.

That’s why Kish designed an Agribusiness degree to mirror skills needed in modern farm-adjacent roles.

“It ties together foundations in business, marketing and management along with a background in agriculture,” Budziak said. “It allows students a broader skill set.”

Hands-on farm techniques in crop, soil and animal science are all part of the curriculum, but with an added focus on how these practices apply with changing business models and technology.

On the cover: A Kishwaukee College student works on a tractor’s mechanical issue during a Diesel Power Technology course. At Kish, students get real-world experience working on farm equipment provided by members and businesses from the community.

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JOB OUTLOOK

Opportunities for work with an Agribusiness degree are plentiful. Agriculture is a language spoken around the world.

Best practices are needed by skilled individuals in a variety of different career pathways such as food scientists, crop researchers, farmers and agriculture technology. Over the next five years, the United States Department of Agriculture projects about 2.6% growth, or about 59,400 job opportunities per year, in employment for college graduates seeking occupations in food, agriculture, renewable natural resources and the environment.

Agribusiness is just one option for students looking to break into agriculture at Kish. The College also offers a transfer pathway for students seeking a four-year degree in agriculture. Plus, ag-related opportunities are available in several other Kish programs.

GET STARTED IN AG

To learn more about Kish’s Agribusiness program and other agriculture fields, visit kish.edu/ agribusiness.

A VARIETY OF AG-RELATED PROGRAMS

Two popular Kish programs that deal directly with agriculture practices are Horticulture and Diesel Power Mechanics.

Horticulture offers a wide range of options, including floral design, landscape design and work in greenhouses or nurseries — all of which focus on sustainability. The program utilizes Kish’s greenhouse facility, which recently implemented hydroponics equipment and will undergo future renovations thanks to a recent State of Illinois capital improvement grant.

Diesel Power Technology takes on a mechanical role in repairing equipment like farm machinery. Kish students gain hands-on experience working on tractors or other farm implements directly from the community.

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

Kish recognizes the importance of agriculture and ag-related occupations and continues to work to develop its courses to better meet the needs of the local community. That includes plans to integrate skills from Agriculture, Horticulture and Diesel Power Technology for a broader education.

At Kish, students studying agribusiness or other agriculture-related fields learn on state-of-theart equipment. Kish’s sprawling, rural campus provides many opportunities for instructors to provide hands-on learning experiences.

Developing partnerships within the local community has been a priority for Kish, as the College looks to create more opportunities for internships and work experience for its students. The opportunity for short-term or continuing education programs based on agriculture practices will be expanded based on the community’s needs. Kish also plans to offer a Cannabis and Hemp Production certificate in the future and is exploring a curriculum for Agriculture Tourism.

Agricultuure generates more than $19 billion annually in Illinois. Farmland covers nearly 75% of the State.

Agriculture means business in Illinois.

Want a career that builds on agriculture traditions and precision farming technologies?

Kishwaukee College Agribusineess Degree & Certtificcate Prog grams!

For more info, visit www.kish.edu/agribusiness Source: www2.illinois.gov/sites/agr/About/Pages/Facts-About-Illinois-Agriculture.aspx

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GRAIN BIN ENTRAPMENT FATALITY RATE

TOO HIGH The majority of entrapments are preventable, researchers say

By MARTHA BLUM – AgriNews Publications

URBANA — The majority of grain bin entrapments occur in the Midwest.

“There have been over 1,100 grain entrapments since the 1960s,” said Salah Issa, assistant professor of agricultural and industrial safety and health at the University of Illinois.

“Surprisingly, 28% involved youth under 21 and 20% adults over 60,” said Issa during a presentation at CropFlix, the 2021 Crop Management Conference. “We tend to see this mostly in bins of corn, soybeans and wheat.”

Since the 1960s, Issa said, the fatality rate for grain bin entrapments is 67%.

“In the last five years the fatality rate is at 42%, so the efforts we’re doing to educate farmers about the dangers is working, but 42% is still really high,” Issa said.

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(Right) Rescue personnel shovel soybeans out of the bottom of a grain bin during an entrapment.

(Opposite page) A fire truck bucket hovers over a grain bin during an entrapment rescue operation.

Shaw Media file photos

“The cause of death for grain engulfments or entrapments is rarely reported,” he said. “But for these 33 cases, 64% of them died from asphyxiation.”

Researchers conducted several experiments to get a better idea of the impact of grain bin entrapments and extrications.

The first experiment evaluated different grain types, the second experiment analyzed the forces that could injure a person’s spine and the third experiment evaluated the pressure of grain on a person’s body.

“We tested sunflower, oats, canola, wheat, soybeans, popcorn and corn at two different moisture contents,” Issa said. “We found that most grains were not significantly different.”

“We also did an experiment with a 180-pound mannequin that we pulled out at different angles from 15 to 75 Issa degrees,” he said. “We wanted to get a better sense of how pulling at an angle impacts the total force when pulling out a victim and this becomes important because in a lot of cases you can’t pull someone straight up.”

STAYIN’ ALIVE

When a person is entrapped in grain there are two different pressures involved.

“When the human body is trying to breathe, the chest is expanding and pushing against the grain,” Issa said. “The grain pushing against the surface is active pressure and when you’re pushing against the grain that’s passive pressure.”

“It’s not about the grain mass on the body,” he said. “It’s about your chest trying to push the grain mass out is what causes the shortness of breath.”

Grain temperature can also be a factor since it can remain 10 degrees cooler in a bin compared to the outside temperature, Issa said.

“A person in water at 4 degrees Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit) can survive for 30 to 90 minutes because water is 25 times more conductive than air,” he said. “Grain is seven to eight times more conductive than air, so we expect a person entrapped at 4 degrees Celsius to survive two to three times longer than in water.”

In addition, it is not solid grain in a bin. “Grains tend to be 40% to 60% oxygen, so there could be oxygen to survive, but there are a lot more questions that need to be researched,” Issa said.

To evaluate the physiological factors of grain entrapments, Issa discussed a study with boa constrictors. The researchers thought the snakes kill people by attacking their chests so the victim can’t breathe.

“But when they did the study with mice they realized that’s not the case,” Issa said. “Boa constrictors apply pressure against the body to impact the blood flow and heart rate so the victim dies from a heart attack.”

In an entrapment situation, the person should try to place his arms and hands in front of his mouth and chest.

PREVENTING ENTRAPMENTS

Issa noted that 94% of grain entrapments are preventable.

“Operator error caused these entrapments,” he said. “The most important way to keep a person safe is use a lock out/tag out.”

There are not a lot of reports about harness use, Issa said, but if there is a report is it usually about misuse such as the safety line was too long.

“That’s doing nothing to protect you from getting entrapped,” he said.

In an entrapment situation, Issa said, the person should try to place his arms and hands in front of his mouth and chest.

“This is critical because in a lot of incidents they are inhaling grain and it also helps to reduce the pressure on your chest,” he said.

Martha Blum can be reached at 815-223-2558, ext. 117, or mblum@ shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Blum.

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312 BUSHELS

PER ACRE BY 2075 PREDICTING 21ST CENTURY ILLINOIS CORN YIELDS

By TOM C. DORAN – AgriNews Publications CHAMPAIGN — Illinois corn and soybean yields have trended steadily upward for more than 60 years. The question is, will that trend continue as carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continue to rise along with global temperatures and changing rainfall patterns?

Emerson Nafziger, University of Illinois crop sciences professor emeritus, looked at climate change and its impact on Illinois crop yields at U of I Extension’s Crop Management Conference.

“We’ve been hearing about climate change for quite while. Some people have been very skeptical about it. Some people still are very skeptical about it, and we’re not going to spend a lot of time trying to convince people that the climate is changing. But the evidence is pretty clear that it is,” Nafziger said.

“As we look forward, I see read tales about how our crop yields are going to take a nosedive. And basically if you believe some people, there’s a pretty good chance we’d be out of business producing the crops in Illinois that we produce if the climate changes as expected over the next 50 to 75 years. We’re not going to come to that conclusion.”

LOOKING BACK

Over the last 40 years, Illinois corn yields have increased overall by 2.2 bushels per acre per year. Northern Illinois

yields have increased 2.35 bushels per acre per year on average in 40 years, the central region has seen a 2.36 bushel per acre increase per year and the southern region increase has been 1.96 bushels per acre per year.

Soybean yields in Illinois overall have increased 0.58 bushels per acre per year.

Northern Illinois increased by 0.54 bushels per acre per year, central Illinois was up per year by 0.61 bushels per acre and southern Illinois increased by 0.58 bushels per acre per year over 40 years.

“There’s a little bit less variability around the soybean trends lines compared to what we saw with corn — on a percentage basis, not too much different,” Nafziger noted.

As yields increased from 1980 to 2019, June through August rainfall in the Prairie State has increased about 2 inches in all regions.

Temperature trends in Illinois over the last 40 years were consistent among regions, but at different levels. The maximum daily summer temperature — June through August — from 1980 to 2019 has decreased about 0.27 degrees per decade on average across Illinois and in southern Illinois, decreased less than that in central Illinois and there was no decrease in northern Illinois.

“There’s not a very strong trend because there’s so much variability. The earth

has certainly warmed some of the last 40 years, but here in Illinois it would show that at least the maximum daily temperature had not risen over that period of time,” Nafziger said.

The minimum daily growing season temperature has increased by about 0.25 degrees per decade from 1980 to 2019 in all Illinois regions.

“That’s actually not too far from the increase in the earth’s temperature over at least part of that period. It’s also highly variable, but that does show a different trend than maximum temperature,” Nafziger added.

CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS

“When I first learned about carbon dioxide and crops, which was about 1970, we were talking about 325 or so parts per million, and today it’s 415 parts per million. Just in the last 50 years, it’s gone up by that amount,” Nafziger said.

“This is one that there isn’t any debate about. We can argue about what affect that has on weather, but we certainly can’t argue that carbon dioxide has not increased — and some people are even willing to argue that now.”

Carbon dioxide and other gases in the air act as a “greenhouse” to trap heat from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere.

The earth’s air temperature has been rising since about 1970 and is now about

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1.8 degrees higher than the 1950 to 1980 baseline. This change is not distributed uniformly around the globe.

Changing air temperatures have affected rainfall, as well. This is not uniform as rainfall in the Corn Belt has shown no real trend. Rainfall distribution patterns have changed in some regions of the world, though, with larger storm events and more extended dry periods.

OTHER GASES

Carbon dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas.

Water vapor and clouds are present in huge quantities compared to other greenhouse gases, but are highly variable.

Evaporation cools the air.

Methane from flooded land such as swamps and rice production fields, thawing tundra, ruminants and escapes of natural gas all contribute methane, and it’s a major source of greenhouse gas.

Nitrous oxide, which is mostly released by microbes from nitrogen applied as fertilizer — estimated at about 1% of the amount of fertilizer N applied — is also a greenhouse gas source.

Each greenhouse gas is assigned a rating based on how long it lasts in the air and how well it traps heat. The global warming potential of carbon dioxide has a 1 rating, and the 20-year global warming potential for methane, because it stays in the air longer than a year, is 84 and 264 is the rating for nitrous oxide.

“These are not released as bigger quantities as is carbon dioxide, but they have a lot more effect on the warming than carbon dioxide does. That’s why we fret and try to figure out how to reduce the amount of nitrous oxide that’s released from cornfields,” Nafziger said.

“Climate change is not uniformly distributed throughout the world. The U.S. Corn Belt has warmed less than many regions in the world. This is expected to continue. From 1990 to 2019, there have been large increases in the Arctic Circle, Africa, Europe and the Atlantic Ocean off of the U.S. eastern seaboard compared to what we have in the Corn Belt.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Predicting the effect of warming on weather in a region is done by atmospheric scientists using high-powered models that use expected global warming poten-

tial and carbon dioxide changes to predict changes in weather.

Yield trend model predictions vary a lot, so they are averaged over a number of models to give a “best guess.” Nafziger used 32 models in the data.

These models make predictions under several scenarios, Representative Concentration Pathways, that differ on how much greenhouse gas will increase in the atmosphere over the coming decades.

One model projects a medium rate of change, with global peak temperatures late in the 21st century — only if the amount of carbon dioxide emitted decreases.

The second model projects a faster rise in temperature over a longer period that likely if the greenhouse gas emission rates remain high. These models were used to project temperature and yields from 2020 to 2075.

Illinois rainfall prediction models for 2020-2075 using Representative Concentration Pathways indicate very small changes in rainfall.

The maximum daily predicted temperatures for 2020-2075 model project a rise of 0.7 degrees per decade for a total increase of 3.9 degrees if the amount of carbon dioxide emitted decreases.

Should greenhouse gas emission rates remain high, temperatures from 2020 to 2075 are projected to increase by 1.4 degrees per decade to a total of 7.8 degrees warmer by 2075.

Minimum temperatures are showing a similar pattern with an increase of 0.6 degrees per decade if there is a reduction in greenhouse gas emitted and a 1.2 degree increase emissions continue to rise.

The average corn yield from 2015 to 2019 was 185 bushels per acre and soybeans came in at 54 bushels per acre.

One way to predict future U.S. yields is to take current trend lines and extend it out to 2075. This would indicate average corn and soybean yields of 307 and 86 bushels per acre, respectively, by 2075.

Using 32 weather variability models for predicting Illinois corn yields for 20202075 — the middle eight models were used for determining an average — the trend line is a 2.2 bushel per acre increase each year to 312 by 2075.

Under the assumption that the amount of carbon dioxide emitted decreases, the average corn yield is projected to increase

Emerson Nafziger, University of Illinois crop sciences professor emeritus, looked at climate change and its impact on crop yields at U of I Extension’s Crop Management Conference.

Photo provided

by 1.63 bushels per acre per year through 2075. If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, the annual average yield increase would be 1.3 bushels per acre through 2075.

Using the same weather models for Illinois soybeans, using a trend line increase of 0.58 bushels per acre per year, yields would go from 56.2 in 2020 to 88 bushels per acre trend line in 2075.

With medium warming, yields are projected to increase by 0.48 bushels per acre per year to 79 bushels per acre by 2075.

Under the scenario where greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, soybean yields would increase by 0.43 bushels per acre per year to an average of 76 bushels per acre by 2075.

“The bottom line is it makes sense that yields will continue upward for many years, even if the rate of increase begins to slow,” Nafziger said.

“You’re going to continue to see projections if you choose to look that show us yields really declining, and I just think over the next 50 years in Illinois that’s not a very realistic picture. Even if our climate changes, I don’t think yields are going to be less in 2090 than they are today.”

Tom C. Doran can be reached at 815-780-7894 or tdoran@shawmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at: @AgNews_Doran.

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Northern Illinois just faced three consecutive wet years – the Chicago area recorded the wettest Mays on record in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

A tractor sits in a flooded field near Leland in spring 2019.

Shaw Media file photo

LOWER RISK OF

SPRING FLOODING

By MARTHA BLUM AgriNews Publications

“The top and subsoil moisture is below to near average, so there is a lot of capacity to take in precipitation in the winter and spring.”

TRENT FORD Illinois state climatologist

IN NORTHERN ILLINOIS THIS YEAR

SOMONAUK — The potential for flooding in northern Illinois during the spring is much lower as compared to the last two years.

“The top and subsoil moisture is below to near average, so there is a lot of capacity to take in precipitation in the winter and spring,” said Trent Ford, Illinois state climatologist based the Illinois State Water Survey, part of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois.

“We have come off three wet years, and we had a dry fall,” said Mark Tuttle, who farms with his two sons near Somonauk. “We’ve had some snowfall and the rivers are down, so I’m concerned about the subsoil moisture, but there’s plenty of time for that to happen.”

Farmers prefer a drier planting season to get the crop in the ground and established.

“I think we’re looking for a great year, if we can get the crop in the ground on time,” said the president of DeKalb County Farm Bureau.

“I’m very optimistic for the ag economy because prices are up, so we have a chance to forward contract and lock in some profit.”

Tuttle plants corn, soybeans and wheat and has a small cow herd.

“We’re up to 80 acres of wheat this year, which is the most we’ve ever grown,” he said.

“Wheat works for us for erosion as a great cover crop in the winter, and when we have spring rains, we’ve got something on our hills.”

Typically, Tuttle divides his acres into 40% corn, 40% soybeans and 20% wheat.

“If we have a late spring, we might plant more beans,” he said. “I planted corn on June

2 two years ago — and I’m not going to do that again.”

Tuttle will plant corn up until Memorial Day. “After that, we’re going to do something else,” he said. “This year, I will plant my 41st crop.”

RAIN, RAIN AND MORE RAIN

Precipitation from April 2019 to March 2020 in northern Illinois was the wettest on record, said Ford during a presentation at CropFlix, the 2021 Crop Management Conference. “We came into March 2020 with soils at or near saturation, streams were at bank full or above and overall there was a pretty significant risk of flooding.”

For both 2019 and 2020, the first three months of the year were wetter than average.

“From April 1 to May 31, we began to see some differences,” Ford said. “The only area that was nearly as wet in 2020 as it was in 2019 was the Chicagoland area, and the rest of the area was 3 to 6 inches drier, which made a large difference in the extent of the flooding issues and planting delays.”

There was also a difference in how frequently the precipitation fell between the two years.

“In 2019, from April 1 to May 31, Chicago’s O’Hare Airport reported 20 days with a least one-quarter of an inch of rain, so there was not a whole lot of time between rains events to let the fields dry down and get fieldwork done,” Ford said. “In 2020, the rain was less than half that, so there were periods where conditions were dry enough and temperatures were warm enough for planting.”

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Snow pack was also quite different in 2019 and 2020.

“Because February and March were so warm in 2020, we had very small snow pack in Wisconsin and Minnesota and almost no snow pack in Iowa or Illinois, so that helped reduce flooding in the spring,” Ford said.

It was very cool in April and May of 2020 with temperatures 1 to 3 degrees below average.

“The 4-inch soil temperature remained in the 50s through mid-May, and it didn’t consistently top out above 60 degrees until May 20, which is 10 to 14 days longer than usual,” Ford said.

The weather patterns in northern Illinois did a large flip in June.

“In Rockford, over 80% of the days from June 1 to July 31 were warmer than average,” Ford said.

“From June to August, it was the hottest summer on record at O’Hare Airport,” he said.

“We didn’t have the extreme heat of 1995 or 1988, but we had consistently above average temperatures.”

A LOOK BACK

The most significant weather event of 2020 was the derecho that occurred on Aug. 10.

“A derecho is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that occurs every couple of years,” Ford said. “But this one was extreme because wind gusts were measured exceeding 100 mph in northern Illinois and estimated to exceed 140 mph in eastern Iowa.”

In addition, the derecho spawned 15 tornadoes in the Chicagoland area.

“The derecho damaged or destroyed 6- to 10-million acres in Iowa and Illinois and almost as problematic as the crop damage was the damage to implements and storage buildings,” Ford said.

“Derechos are not rare in northern Illinois. They occur about every two to three years,” he said. “But because of the incredible wind speeds and the long-lived nature, this event was definitely anomalous.”

The derecho brought the last glimpse of rainfall for the month of August in northern Illinois.

“It was the driest August on record in Moline and the third driest on record in Chicago,” Ford said. “August 2020 was drier than August 2012, but the reason we didn’t see 2012-like impacts was we had wet conditions one and half years leading up to this growing season that helped minimize the crop impacts of this dry period.”

The harvest months were pretty wet in northwest Illinois and a little drier in northeast Illinois, but that did not result in harvest delays as much as in 2019.

“A cold front in mid to late October brought the first fall freeze for northern Illinois about two weeks early,” Ford said. “The late spring freeze combined with the fall freeze resulted in the growing season length 15 to 20 days shorter than average.”

A LOOK AHEAD

A moderate to strong La Niña is likely to maintain through the spring of 2021, Ford said.

“La Niña winters tend to be wetter than normal, but there’s not a lot of relationship with La Niña to temperatures and precipitation in northern Illinois,” Ford said.

“For March to May, there are equal chances of above and below average temperatures,” he said. “There’s a slightly elevated odds of above average precipitation, which is a combination of La Niña and long-term trends.”

Chicago has had three consecutive years with the wettest May on record in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

“The long-term trend is we are much more likely to get a wetter than average spring than a drier than average spring,” Ford said. “There is not a lot of concern for a drought developing before the growing season.”

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TRACKING NUTRIENT LOSS THROUGH TILE MONITORING

By TOM C. DORAN – AgriNews Publications

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E

dge-of-field tile drainage monitoring provides an assessment of nutrient loss and documents the impact of conservation practices.

Laura Christianson, University of Illinois Department of Crop Sciences Extension specialist, detailed the procedures for collecting tile drainage water samples and measuring water flow as part of U of I Extension’s Crop Management Conference.

To provide a baseline “rule of thumb” snapshot of nutrient loss through tile drainage across the Corn Belt, Christianson referred to a large-scale review she did several years ago of every published drainage water quality study in North America.

“This gives us confidence that this is fairly representative across the Midwest, across the Corn Belt and across many cropping systems, primarily for corn and soybeans,” Christianson said.

The data included over 900 observations from 40 to 50 years of drainage studies that documented individual nitrate concentrations reported as flow-weighted and annual concentrations.

The analysis found the mean nitrate concentration was about 13 milligrams nitrate nitrogen per liter in all of those 900 drainage studies. The median value was about 12 milligrams of nitrate nitrogen per liter.

“So, if I wanted to give you a feel for what’s a normal or typical tile drainage concentration for corn and soybean cropping systems in the Midwest, I would say generally we’re talking about 10 to 15 milligrams nitrate nitrogen per liter based on the mean and median values,” Christianson said.

“I know what you’re saying. ‘Hold on, Dr. Laura, I’m doing cover crops, I’m following the ‘Four Rs’ of nitrogen management, my nitrate concentration should be a lot less.’ That may be the case, but I just want to give you a general ‘rule of thumb’ numbers for your back pocket for what normal values for nitrate concentrations are in our tile drainage across the Midwest.”

To put the nitrate nitrogen loss found in the data in perspective, the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy calls for a 25% reduction in both nitrogen and phosphorus losses into Illinois waterways by 2025 and a final goal of a 45% loss reduction. The “rule of thumb” across 900 observations is much higher in terms of drainage concentrations than the strategy’s goals.

Christianson gave step-by-step procedures to collect accurate readings of nutrient concentrations and flow in tile drains.

Laura Christianson (right) founded and co-leads I-DROP — the Illinois Drainage Research and Outreach Program — at the University of Illinois.

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SAMPLE COLLECTING

Tile water sampling can be done by hand or using automated sampling equipment.

“The selection of the method of collecting the samples obviously depends on the goals of your monitoring. It also depends on your resources, not just money, but also available labor, time and personnel,” Christianson explained.

“For a farmer or landowner you would probably use the manual sampling by hand rather than using an auto-sampler. You can collect from a control structure and you could also sample a title outlet if you have access to it.”

For hand collection, she recommended taping a bottle to a PVC pipe to collect samples from the tile outlet or control structure.

Rinse the sample collection container three times with water at the sampling location before filling the sample bottle to make everything in the bottle represents what’s being collected. Fill the sample bottle, cap it, label it and store on ice or frozen — usually on ice for transport and then store it frozen until it can be analyzed.

If funding is available, auto-samplers provide greater flexibility. There are auto-samplers with programmable electronic operation and memory; a sample collection pump; sample bottles — typical arrangements allow 1 to 24 sample bottles; and a stage recorder — usually, but not always.

The programmable computer tells the sampler to turn on and start pulling the water sample up and into the bottles.

The stage recorder is essentially a flow sensor that is down in the water that’s being sampled and “talks” to the auto-sampler. This allows for collecting flow-based samples.

There are two options for determining a sample interval when using an automated sampler. With the time-based option the auto-sampler can be programmed to collected, for example, every four hours or every four days. You don’t have to actually be there collecting samples every four hours or maybe every four days.

A second option is flow-based programming for the auto-sampler to sample every

2,000 gallons, every 20,000 gallons, or whatever is chosen for the water collection.

Christianson said of the sample frequency recommendations, “if you’re interested in nitrate the general rule of thumb is to collect tile drainage water samples at least once a week. If you’re interested in dissolved phosphorous in addition to nitrate levels, sampling should be done generally every day and one-half to every day.”

She noted another option for measuring nitrogen, phosphorous or other concentrations is using YSI handheld sondes that can give an immediate readout of nitrate concentration.

“There is no sample collection involved when using water quality sondes. Sondes have to be calibrated every couple of hours if they’re being used over the course of a day. They definitely need to be calibrated every time you go out,” she said.

“What I’m personally a little more excited about are real-time deployable nitrate sensors. These real-time sensors are still very expensive, anywhere from $15,000 up to about $40,000 apiece. However, they give us the capability to measure continuous nitrate concentrations in a stream, river or tile drain in real time.

“So, for example, rather than taking a sample today and going back and taking a sample two days later, I can deploy a real-time sensor and have a nitrate concentration every 30 minutes or every 15 minutes between those times.”

WATER FLOW

Monitoring water flow is also part of tracking nutrient losses into waterways.

Christianson gave options for monitoring the flow through underground tile.

“One of the most common flow measurement methods for water which uses a stage discharge relationship or a stage discharge equation. Stage is a different way to say water depth or water surface level. We often talk about ‘flood stage’ for rivers. It means water depth that’s resulting in flooding,” Christianson noted.

Flow rates in tile drainage or in streams or rivers are very difficult to measure, especially if continuous flow rate measurements are needed. However, stage or water

depth is relatively much easier to measure even continuously.

A stage-discharge relationship was developed so that whatever the water depth is in a stream or tile drain that water depth can be related to a flow rate.

Relating stage or water depth to flow rate can be determined by using a weir — an obstruction purposely placed in a channel or flow path over which water flows and can be measured.

The depth of water flowing over the weir is correlated with flow rate. A depth monitoring device can be placed behind or upstream of the weir and then you can relate the depth of water flowing over that weir to flow rate through a water sensor that’s continuously logging water depth.

CONTROL STRUCTURE

A similar system can be used in a tile drainage system’s control structure.

Control structures are similar to small manholes that allow access to the underground tile. The control structures have stop logs or sometimes called plates, gates or drop shoots that can be deployed inside the controls structure.

“The real purpose of the control structures is for conservation drainage practices such as control drainage, bioreactors or saturated buffers. But control structures also offer an important opportunity to use stop logs to double as a weir for water monitoring,” Christianson said.

The depth of water that’s flowing over the top of the stop logs can be related to a flow rate and is determined by being calibrated in the lab.

Christianson said a “tried and true” method of measuring tile drainage flow rates is by using a calibrated bucket or calibrated container for volume accuracy and a stopwatch. This only provides an accurate snapshot of the flow rate at that specific by collecting the water as it flows out of a tile.

She recommended repeated measurements using this collection method at a given time to increase the precision of the flow rate.

Tom C. Doran can be reached at 815-780-7894 or tdoran@shawmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at: @AgNews_Doran.

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