The Mountain View County agricultural service board (ASB) has been given an update on the work of the Alberta Phosphorus Watershed project. The review came during the board’s recent regularly scheduled meeting in council chambers.
Nicole Seitz Vermeer, water research specialist, water quality section, with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry appeared before the board as a delegation.
“Six years ago Alberta Agriculture and Forestry and the intensive livestock working group initiated a watershed study to develop and test a phosphorus risk management tool,” administration said in a briefing note to the board.
“The Alberta phosphorus management tool provides producers with beneficial management practice suggestions to reduce nutrient loss from their farms. The tool is used to assess the risk of phosphorus loss and prioritize best management practices on environmental effectiveness and cost.”
The project team worked with producers in two agricultural watersheds, including the Acme Creek watershed, which includes parts of Mountain View County. Work also took place in the Tindastoll Creek watershed near Penhold.
“These watersheds were selected based on the diversity of livestock production and watershed characteristics.”
The Acme Creek portion of the project has now been completed and a final report is being prepared, members heard.
Vermeer gave an update on the project, saying the purpose of the project was to find out if adoption of best management practices would improve water quality at the watershed scale.
Agricultural best management practices are conservation practices that producers use to minimize nutrient loss to the aquatic environment, while simultaneously meeting or exceeding production targets, members heard.
Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in manure and inorganic fertilizers benefit crop production, but surface runoff can transport these crop nutrients into streams and water bodies if not managed effectively, resulting in algae blooms and fish kills, members heard.
Appropriate rate, timing and placement of nutrients, setbacks from streams for nutrient application, off-stream watering for livestock, and riparian and pasture management are examples of best management practices, members heard.
The Alberta phosphorus management tool used in the project assessed the risk of phosphorus loss based on the user’s response to a series of questions about presence, accumulation and release of phosphorus, as well as landscape, environmental and management factors, members heard.
The project key findings to date include that “average nutrient concentrations were generally higher in the treatment watersheds than the controls, suggesting the treatment watersheds may have had slightly higher agricultural intensity than the control watersheds.
“No improvements in water quality were identified at the water scale (outlets) as a result of best management practice implementation. This was due to the short amount of time that the practices were implemented.”
The board received the report for information.
Councillors also received an update on the upcoming AgSmart – Growing Profits with Data event at Olds College.
The Aug. 13-14 expo will include demonstrations, workshops and lectures on technology being used in the agriculture industry.
