Agriculture Commons^™

The Effect Of Salinity Level Upon The Yield, Root Growth, And Water Extraction Of Contrasting Rooting Subpopulations Of Alfalfa (Medicago Sativa) Under Conditions Of Zero Leaching, Laura A. Vincent

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A major problem in irrigated agriculture in the Western U.S. is the gradual accumulation of salinity in the plant root zone. These nonuniformly saline soils contain increasing amounts of salinity with depth, and salt accumulation is accelerated in situations where leaching is minimized. Root growth and thus plant yield is limited in these soils due to decreased water uptake. We studied the root growth of two subpopulations of alfalfa differing in their ability to produce fibrous roots to determine if altering root morphology would increase plant yield and water extraction, in an irrigated saline soil.

Soil profiles for a control …

Mule Deer Highway Mortality In Northeastern Utah: An Analysis Of Population-Level Impacts And A New Mitigative System, Mark E. Lehnert

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Rerouting highways to accommodate construction of the Jordanelle Reservoir in northeastern Utah caused a dramatic increase in vehicle collisions with mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). I evaluated the effectiveness of a new system of highway crosswalk structures installed to reduce deer losses and preserve seasonal migrations. In addition, I constructed computer simulation models to investigate how highway mortality has impacted the Jordanelle deer population.

The crosswalk system restricted deer crossings to specific, well-marked areas along highways where motorists could anticipate them. Subsequent to installation, mortality declined 42.3% and 36.8% along a four-lane and two-lane highway, respectively. I was unable …

A Survey Of Employees Of The United States Department Of Agriculture's Animal Damage Control Program, Susan A. Schroeder

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the attitudes of employees of the United States Department of Agriculture's Animal Damage Control (ADC) Program. This research examined ADC employees' attitudes about wildlife, the ADC program and ADC employment, wildlife damage management methods, euthanasia and the killing process, and the role of various public and private groups on ADC policy. This study also applied the theory of organizational capture to the ADC program to test its utility in explaining the attitudes and behaviors of employees. Results were based on a survey of ADC employees conducted in January 1995.

Survey responses were analyzed to explore associations between …

An Ecological History Of Tintic Valley, Juab County, Utah, Jeffrey A. Creque

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This work was a case study of historical ecological change in Tintic Valley, Juab County, Utah, an area historically impacted by mining and ranching activities common to much of the American West. The temporal framework for the study was approximately 120 years, the period of direct Euroamerican influence. In recognition of the ecological implications of cultural change, however, the impacts of prehistoric and protohistoric human activity on study area landscape patterns and processes were also explicitly addressed.

The study included a narrative description of historic land uses and ecological change in Tintic Valley, and examined the changes in landscape patterns …

Livestock As Seed Disseminators For Reseeding Degraded Rangelands: The Role Of Dung In Gap Formation And Plant Establishment, Brian S. Auman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Livestock (cattle and sheep) were examined as seed disseminators for reseeding degraded Intermountain rangelands. "Hycrest" crested wheatgrass [Agropyron desertorum (Fisch. ex Link) Schult. X A. cristatum (L.) Gaert.] seed was fed to yearling Holstein steers and Suffolk ewes. Dung was collected from each animal type and deposited on plots of high and low densities of an annual [cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.)] and perennial [squirreltail (Sitanion hystrix Nutt.)] grass species. The experiment evaluated the ability of the dung to suppress the resident vegetation, and the recruitment and establishment of Hycrest seedlings emerging from the dung.

Sheep dung had …

Esperance Region Catchment Planning Strategy, John Platt, Brendan Nicholas, Rod Short, Stephen Gee

Natural resources published reports

The Esperance Region Catchment Planning Strategy project was initiated by the Esperance Land Conservation District Committee.

This report provides a reference document for farmers and other land managers such as government agencies and local government, and should help them to strategically focus their catchment planning activities.

It will help land managers to identify the major catchments and land systems in their area, management issues for long term sustainability, and a regional strategy for catchment planning.

Catchment planning involves both technical and social processes.

Technically it is a process of planning the sustainable use of water resources within a catchment.

Geraldton Region Land Resources Survey, L Gary Rogers, National Landcare Program (Australia)

Land resources series

This report presents results from soil and landform mapping at a scale of 1:250,000 for approximately 2.1 million hectares of the wheat-sheep belt of Western Australia. The study area corresponds with the Geraldton advisory district for Agriculture Western Australia and is the northern extent of the wheatbelt. The area covers parts of three major geological regions of Western Australia: the Perth Basin, Carnarvon Basin and the Yilgarn Craton. Fifty-one soil-landscape systems have been identified, some of which have been divided into subsystems, and are illustrated on the accompanying maps. The landform, parent material, rainfall, land use, native vegetation and soils …

Wellington-Blackwood Land Resources Survey, Peter J. Tille, Georgina Wilson, National Landcare Program (Australia)

Land resources series

This report presents descriptions to accompany land resource maps of the Wellington- Blackwood district, east of Bunbury in the south-west of Western Australia. The maps cover an area of about 760,000 hectares and are presented as two map sheets at a scale of 1:100,000. Four different physiographic zones cover the survey area: • The Western Darling Range Zone occupies the major portion of the area and consists of a deeply dissected lateritic plateau overlying crystalline rocks. Three soil-landscape systems containing 24 subsystems have been identified and mapped within this zone. • The Eastern Darling Range Zone is in the south-east …

Evaluation Of The Crop Growth Component Of The Root Zone Water Quality Model For Corn In Ohio, Sue E. Nokes, Feliks M. Landa, Jon D. Hanson

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

The Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM) is a computer model developed to simulate water, chemical, and biological processes in the root zone of agricultural management systems. As of this writing RZWQM is in the beta-testing phase of development. This article reports on a parameterization and evaluation study performed in Ohio on field corn for the crop growth component of RZWQM. The generic crop growth model in RZWQM had not previously been parameterized or tested on field corn. This article reports the results of such a study. One year of data was used to calibrate RZWQM, and two additional years …

Performance Of Vegetative Filter Strips With Varying Pollutant Source And Filter Strip Lengths, Puneet Srivastava, Dwayne R. Edwards, Tommy C. Daniel, Philip A. Moore Jr., Thomas A. Costello

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Vegetative filter strips (VFS) can reduce runoff losses of pollutants such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) from land areas treated with fertilizers. While VFS effectiveness is considered to depend on lengths of pollutant source and VFS areas, there is little experimental evidence of this dependence, particularly when the pollutant source is manure-treated pasture. This study assessed the effects of pollutant source area (fescue pasture treated with poultry litter) length and VFS (fescue pasture) length on VFS removal of nitrate N (NO₃-N), ammonia N (NH₃-N), total Kjeldahl N (TKN), ortho-P (PO₄-P), total P (TP), …

Potential For Crop Residue To Restrict Herbicide Movement In Surface From Water Corn And Soybean Fields, William W. Witt

KWRRI Research Reports

As no-tillage and other conservation tillage practices continue to increase, it is important to have knowledge of herbicide adsorption on crop residue with regard to the potential for the herbicide to be removed from the residue and move with runoff water from the field into nearby surface waters. Previous research had compared herbicide adsorption to various residues, but it was difficult to make comparisons among these studies because the residues were from different crops or the amount of residue decomposition was different. The amount of "weathering" or "aging" of the residue at the time of herbicide treatment could alter the …

Vegetative Filter Strip Design For Grassed Areas Treated With Animal Manures, Dwayne R. Edwards, Tommy C. Daniel, Philip A. Moore Jr.

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Vegetative filter strips (VFS) are a low-cost management option that have been demonstrated to be effective in reducing runoff transport of fertilizer constituents applied to grassed areas (pasture or meadow). Runoff quality studies involving fertilizers applied to grassed areas suggest that VFS can be designed by assuming that (1) only infiltration is responsible for pollutant removal, (2) the first post-application runoff event is most important from a water quality perspective (enabling a design event approach), and (3) no pollutant build-up that degrades VFS performance will occur. The purpose of this study was to develop a VFS design algorithm for grassed …

A Direct, Approximate Solution To The Modified Green-Ampt Infiltration Equation, Puneet Srivastava, Thomas A. Costello, Dwayne R. Edwards

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Accurately predicting the rainfall-runoff process is of vital importance for water quality models as well as for correct design of various types of hydraulic structures. This article presents a method of describing the cumulative infiltration process as an explicit function of time using an approximation to the modified Green-Ampt equation given by Mein and Larson (1971). The resulting equation is helpful in predicting cumulative infiltration and therefore infiltration capacity for computer simulation models. The proposed method takes about 50% less time than the usual iterative technique for the same degree of accuracy. The maximum error due to approximation was 1% …

Simulation Of Runoff Transport Of Animal Manure Constituents, Yang Wang, Dwayne R. Edwards, Tommy C. Daniel, H. Don Scott

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Runoff losses of land-applied animal manure constituents can adversely affect the quality of downstream waters. Reliable mathematical simulation models can help estimate runoff losses of animal manure constituents and identify management measures to reduce these losses. The objective of this study was to develop and calibrate an event-based simulation model to describe the runoff transport of solids (soil and manure particles) and nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) from areas treated with animal manure. The resulting model, consisting of linked hydrology, soil/manure transport, and nutrient transport components, is process-oriented and uses measurable parameters to the greatest degree possible. The three components of …

Quality Of Runoff From Four Northwest Arkansas Pasture Fields Treated With Organic And Inorganic Fertilizer, Dwayne R. Edwards, Tommy C. Daniel, John F. Murdoch, Philip A. Moore Jr.

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Long-term land application of animal manures, even at agronomic rates, can promote accumulation of soil phosphorus (P) which can, in turn, contribute to increased P loadings to downstream waters. The objective of this study was to assess the soil and runoff effects of replacing animal manure as a soil amendment with inorganic fertilizer (ammonium nitrate, NH₄NO₃) on fields that had been treated previously with animal manures. Runoff from two pairs of small fields (0.57 to 1.46 ha) was sampled from September 1991 to April 1994. All fields had been treated previously with animal manures; after runoff …

Poultry Litter-Treated Length Effects On Quality Of Runoff From Fescue Plots, Dwayne R. Edwards, Philip A. Moore Jr., Tommy C. Daniel, Puneet Srivastava

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Using experimental data and/or mathematical simulation models to identify practices that reduce pollution from manure-treated areas is sometimes perceived as limited by the unknown validity of extrapolating plot-scale data to larger areas and by uncertainties in modeling transport of various pollutants. The objectives of this study were to assess the effect of length of manure treatment on runoff concentrations of poultry litter constituents and to define the modes of transport (particulate versus soluble) for nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), carbon (C), and solids. Poultry litter was applied to three 1.5- x 18.3-m fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) plots with runoff collection …

Application Of Simplified Phosphorus Transport Models To Pasture Fields In Northwest Arkansas, Dwayne R. Edwards, C. T. Haan, Andrew N. Sharpley, John F. Murdoch, Tommy C. Daniel, Philip A. Moore Jr.

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Runoff transport of phosphorus (P) is often predicted from simple equations with parameters determined from data applicable primarily to row-cropped and fallow cover conditions. The applicability, accuracy, and precision of such P transport prediction equations under pasture situations are less well defined. The objectives of this study were to determine parameters of simplified runoff P transport equations for pasture fields and to assess the accuracy and precision of the equations. Runoff, sediment yield, soluble P transport, and particulate P transport data were collected from four pasture fields in northwestern Arkansas. Runoff event enrichment ratios and extraction coefficients were computed, and …

Toolibin Catchment Revegetation Manual, Avril Baxter

Natural resources published reports

In1983, heavy winter rains resulted in severe inundation and flooding of the lower parts of the Toolibin catchment. The damage to crops and pastures was immense and costly. Local farmers realised that they needed to work together to minimise the impact of heavy rainfall events on their farm productivity.

At the same time the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) was concerned about the quality of both ground and surface water in the catchment area for Toolibin Lake, the last remaining wooded freshwater lake in the southern wheatbelt. This mutual interest led to the formation of the …

Soil Information Sheets For Part Of The Jerramungup Agricultural Area, Tim D. Overheu, Landcare Western Australia, Jerramungup Land Conservation District Committee

Agriculture reports

Each sheet summarises information on the soil's characteristic properties, and associated land use suitability and management. A photograph of a representative profile is provided for each soil. Technical terms are defined in soil sheet glossary. Information is presented under the following headings: soil series and groups, occurence, native vegetation, soil profile description, characteristic soil properties, soil classification and agricultural land use and management.

Modelling The Effects Of Rehabilitation And Changed Agricultural Practices In A Saline-Affected Rural Catchment, M. K. Heller

Theses : Honours

The Bremer river catchment, on the South-coast of Western Australia, is typical of most river catchments in this region in that it has been seriously affected by sedimentation, salinisation and eutrophication brought on by the gradual dominance of agricultural land management practices. Vegetated rehabilitation and changed agricultural land management practices (ie minimum / zero tillage) have now been widely adopted throughout the catchment in response to these degradation issues. This study examined the potential impact minimum / zero tillage, vegetated rehabilitation and remnant vegetation could have on both a farm and catchment wide scale. A Geographical Information System was developed …

Land Capability Assessment For The Wellington-Blackwood Survey, Peter J. Tille

Resource management technical reports

This report has been produced to provide more detail on the land capability assessments presented in the Wellington-Blackwood Land Resources Survey (Tille 1996). In that report, the land capability of each of the soil-landscape subsystems has been summarised with a brief description. Capability ratings are provided here for each of the map units (including subsystem phases) which appear on the two map sheets (Tille et al. 1996) accompanying the Wellington-Blackwood Land Resources Survey.

Soil Information Sheets For The Mount Beaumont, Mallee And Esperance Agricultural Areas, Department Of Agriculture And Food, Landcare Western Australia, Esperance Land Conservation District Committee, Mount Beaumont / Howick Catchment Group (W.A.)

Agriculture reports

Each sheet summarises information on the soil's characteristic properties, and associated land use suitability and management. A photograph of a representative profile is provided for each soil. Technical terms are defined in soil sheet glossary. Information is presented under the following headings: soil series and groups, occurence, native vegetation, soil profile description, characteristic soil properties, soil classification and agricultural land use and management.

Soils Of The Mount Beaumont Area, G G. Scholz, Henry Smolinski

Land resources series

Mount Beaumont Mount Beaumont is approximately 100 km north-east of Esperance in the south-east of Western Australia. In 1982 an area of 35,000 ha of virgin Crown Land was released for agriculture (identified as Mount Beaumont Stage I) and later it was proposed to release a further 33,600 ha (Mount Beaumont Stage II). Following development of the first stage, doubts arose about the suitability of the soils for agriculture, so the Department of Agriculture (now Agriculture Western Australia) surveyed the soils of the Mount Beaumont Stage II area before further land release. The survey indicated severe limitations to production and …

No-Till Sowing Systems In North America With Relevance To Western Australia, K J. Bligh

Resource management technical reports

No abstract provided.

Bulletin 4307 - Grass Control In Pastures Using Herbicides, Alexandra Wallace

Bulletins 4000 -

This Bulletin discusses three methods for herbicide control of grasses in pastures:

• pasture manipulation, in the early stages of pasture growth;
• spray-topping late in the growing season; and
• hay freezing, late in the growing season.

Processing Results Of Western Australian Wool, John Stanton A/Prof, Lindy Coss, Peter Metcalf

Resource management technical reports

Despite a perception by some that Western Australian wool 'processes poorly', this study found that the consignments processed:

1. into longer tops suited for worsted weaving

2. into longer than predicted tops

3. with the same consistency as other Australian consignments

Searching For Sustainable Use Of Montana’S Water: A Series Of Vignettes, Matthew Mckinney

Sustainable Use of the West's Water (Summer Conference, June 12-14)

24 pages.

Contains references.

The Debate: Are Water Rights And Sustainable Water Use Compatible?, Stuart L. Somach

Sustainable Use of the West's Water (Summer Conference, June 12-14)

12 pages.

Contains footnotes and references.

Conservation At The Zuni Pueblo: Lessons In Sustainability, James E. Enote

Sustainable Use of the West's Water (Summer Conference, June 12-14)

7 pages.

Contains references.

Regional Water Planning In New Mexico: An Opportunity For Citizen Involvement In State Government, Lucy Moore

Sustainable Use of the West's Water (Summer Conference, June 12-14)

12 pages.

Contains references.