Nitrate Field Run-Off

Nitrate leaching from soils with legume included in dairy crop rotation

In November 2015 the lead MSc student on this research completed her data gathering, and her supervisors asked me to take over the project for an extra 6 months to complete 2 years of data gathering. The project was testing the effect of including legumes (alfalfa and soy beans) in corn crop rotation on fields fertilized with dairy manure.

The site was at the University of Guelph Alfred campus, Alfred, ON and consisted of two fields – one with soil high in sand and one with soil high in clay. Each field had 12 experimental plots and each plot had 2 underground lysimeters for sampling ground water leachate. Six plot in the clay field also had tile drains which allowed us to sample water drainage.

We used a portable drill with a peristaltic pump attachment to pump out the water from the lysimeters, while the tile drains had tipping buckets connected to a datalogger to measure and record the water flow.

This project ran concurrently with a nitrous oxide field emissions trial. More information on this can be found here: http://atrium.lib.uoguelph.ca/xmlui/handle/10214/9647