Shared by request of Guolong Liang
Hello there!
We’re thrilled to tell you about a major expansion in water quality research and outreach efforts in Wisconsin’s Central Sands region. Thanks to funding support from the Rural Partnership Institute, funded by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, we’re launching new projects to develop and implement innovative yet practical agricultural solutions that protect groundwater quality. We’d love for you to get involved in this exciting initiative! Scroll to the bottom to learn about how to get involved!
Check out our announcement video here at our Facebook page!
What’s the Buzz About?
Our Central Sands region is known for its sandy soils, which unfortunately don’t hold water or nutrients well. This makes our groundwater highly vulnerable to nitrate contamination from agricultural practices. But with your help, we’re aiming to find solutions to minimize nitrate leaching!
Our Goal is to:
- Develop practical, economically viable solutions to improve groundwater quality and support resilient agriculture.
More Specifically to :
- Conduct applied research on the best solutions in agriculture to improve groundwater quality.
- Provide local communities with science-based information to drive adoption of conservation practices.
Interdisciplinary Research Informs Real-life Decision-Making
- Innovative Agricultural Practices: We’re working on techniques like cover cropping, interseeding cover crops in vegetable rotation, and applying organic matter amendments to retain nitrogen and reduce leaching.
- Optimizing Nitrogen Use: We’ll build and analyze a yield response dataset for potatoes and vegetables. We will also use technologies like remote sensing and Artificial Intelligence to fine-tune nitrogen management during the growing season.
- Real-Time Irrigation Nitrate Measurement Tools: We’re developing tools for real-time nitrate measurement in irrigation water and integrating local weather data to better manage nitrogen application.
- Community and Economic Impact Assessment: Changes in nitrogen use, crop production and farm profits will be estimated for the Central Sands region based on observed and projected farmer adoption of the new practices described above.
Show & Tell Based Outreach
- Video Series: We will use videos to showcase both the research process outlined above and farmer experiences trying innovative practices in the Central Sands.
- Field Research Tours: We will host field days demonstrating ongoing research efforts on both research stations and on-farm in the upcoming seasons.
- Innovation Farms: Successful research solutions will be demonstrated on commercial farms.
How You Can Get Involved
We’d love to have you join us! Here’s how you can participate:
- Get up-to-date educational content from our social media: We will post our outreach videos as well as event updates on our Facebook page. Make sure to follow us on Facebook and interact with us through each post! We will also post upcoming events related to this project there so that you don’t miss these opportunities.
- Attend Seminars and Field Days: We will also host an Agriculture Water Quality Field Day in the summer of 2025 in Central Wisconsin.
Have any questions or ideas for collaborations? We are here for you! Contact project leads: Dr. Jed Colquhoun at colquhoun@wisc.edu and outreach specialist Guolong Liang at gliang6@wisc.edu.
We’ll be sharing more details soon as this exciting project gets underway. Together, we can make a real difference in water quality and agricultural sustainability in the Central Sands region.
Thank you for your commitment to improving our water quality and supporting sustainable agriculture. We can’t wait to work with you!
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Amanda Gevens
Chair, Professor & Extension Specialist
Administrative Director of the Wisconsin Seed Potato Certification Program
Fritz Friday Chair for Vegetable Production Research
Plant Pathology Department
1630 Linden Drive Room
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
gevens@wisc.edu/608-575-3029
