Defiance, OH. Local ag applicator, Gaerte Ag Service LLC, has been actively participating in the Partnership for Ag Resource Management for the past two years, and recently became a corporate member, to increase sales of products and services that reduce phosphorus fertilizer losses from cropland.
In 2011 with support from the Great lakes Protection Fund, the Partnership for Ag Resource Management (PARM) initiated a project with Sandusky River Watershed ag retailers to identify, promote and track products and service that reduce phosphorus (P) losses from cropland, improving water quality. The effort expanded to the Great Lakes Basin (GLB) in 2015. Sixty-two ag retail locations participated in the 2016 season survey, representing more than 4.7 million acres serviced.
Products and services provided by Gaerte Ag Service included cover crop application, cover crop seed sales and weather consideration before fertilizer application. Cover crops are seeded in late summer to sustain ground cover over winter. Maintaining ground cover helps reduce soil erosion, and holds nutrients in the crop instead of remaining on the surface where fertilizers are subject to runoff into nearby waterways. Gaerte Ag Service’s consideration of weather before fertilizer application also assisted in keeping costly inputs on fields. Heavy rain events are increasing in severity and frequency each year, making sustainable approaches to farm management increasingly important
As a result of Gaerte Ag’s 2017 efforts, our Nutrient Reduction Calculator estimated that their facility has prevented an estimated 3,441 pounds of P from leaving cropland and entering waterways in the GLB. This is a rough estimate; the calculator uses an average of estimates for P-loss reduction from publications in scientific journals. Cover crop acres reported by the firm for 2017 was 20.00% of their total acres serviced for the year, while 19.98% was the average for the state of Ohio and 17.51% was the average for the GLB as a whole. Respectively, the firms numbers for 2016 were 27.68% compared to the 17.38% state avg. and the GLB 10.53%.
“Ag retailers, farmers and their families hunt, fish, boat and swim, and want to produce great quality, affordable food in ways that protect our water resources,” reports Dr. Thomas Green, who directs the Partnership. “We’re impressed by the tremendous progress being made by Gaerte Ag Service in educating farmer customers about these opportunities that have helped their company keep phosphorus on cropland, improving yields and reducing costs for farmers.”
“The Partnership for Ag Resource Management group has compiled and tabulated the data of the farmer- growers and applicators of the Great Lakes Basin watershed’s efforts to keep nutrients in place and out of the Maumee and its tributaries. Thru annual surveys they keep data on participant’s conservation practices, we voluntarily provided our data to them and found we are doing quite a bit of good here within the GLB. I in turn think the Partnership’s efforts to report for all of us here in the Agricultural industry within the GLB is very positive program. It shows our agricultural community’s commitment to doing its part in helping keep our water clean our soil fertile and our recreation opportunities along this watershed top notch! I applaud the Partnership in helping us tell our side of the story,” said Gaerte. “ I think having an independent group report our progress adds some credibility to our efforts. There have been mandated changes in the recent past dictating fertility applications in our watershed, I believe this reporting tool will allow our grower customers to shine in the light of the progress we are making that go above and beyond just the requirements. I like having the estimated P retention figures calculated, it gives our efforts some traction. We have been aerially applying cover crops for 10 years now, so in my mind I multiply that by 10 years and 34,410 pounds sounds like progress! While selling cover crop seed direct to growers who apply it themselves as well, and not knowing how many acres they are applying to, our impact is even bigger than we know. If nothing else this is our benchmark and I intend to grow that figure every year going forward for the benefit of the watershed and all those who call it home.”
