Cropping Systems & Water Quality USDA Soil & Water Conservation Research since 1929

1. Cropping Systems & Water Quality USDA Soil & Water Conservation Research since 1929 ARS – Columbia, Missouri

2. ARS ResearchinNatural Resources & Sustainable Agricultural Systems • 494 Scientists • 159 Research Projects • 62 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

3. Water Availability & Watershed Management • Effectiveness of Conservation Practices • Irrigation Water Management • Drainage Water Management Systems • Integrated Erosion and Sedimentation Technologies • Watershed Management, Water Availability, and Ecosystem Restoration • Water Quality Protection Systems Total Projects: 39 Total Locations: 26 Total Scientists: 133

4. Climate Change, Soils, and Emissions • Enable 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 Resources Total Projects: 38 Total Locations: 29 Total Scientists: 99

5. Bioenergy and Energy Alternatives • Feedstock Development (Enable new varieties and hybrids of bioenergyfeedstocks with optimal traits) • Sustainable Feedstock Production Systems (Enable new optimal practices and systems that maximize the sustainable yield of high-quality bioenergyfeedstocks) • Biorefining (Enable new, commercially preferred biorefining technologies) Total Projects: 14 Total Locations: 6 Total Scientists: 45

6. Agricultural and Industrial Byproducts • Management, Enhancement, and Utilization of Manure • Nutrients and Resources • Manure Pathogens and Pharmaceutically Active Compounds (PACs) • Atmospheric Emissions • Developing Beneficial Uses of Agricultural, Industrial and Municipal Byproducts Total Projects: 16 Total Locations: 14 Total Scientists: 50

7. 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 Systems Total Projects: 36 Total Locations: 24 Total Scientists: 116

8. 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: 16 Total Locations: 16 Total Scientists: 50

9. How We Got Here 1929 USDA Bureau of Soils & Chemistry, Bureau of Public Roads 1930 Bethany Erosion Plots started 1933 Dept of Interior - Soil Erosion Service 1935 USDA-Soil Conservation Service 1937 McCredie Erosion Plots started 1953 USDA-ARS 1961 North Central Hydrology Research Watershed Added Treynor IA Deep Loess station 1971 Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed 1988 Merged Watershed and Crop Production 1990 MSEA project, followed by ASEQ project 2000 Irrigation research started at Delta Center 2003 CEAP project

10. 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

11. 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 Scientific and Administrative Support Staff

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. Leveraging with MU • 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

16. 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

17. 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