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Papers
Environmental Benefits and Economic Costs of Manure Incorporation on Dairy Waste Application Fields,
TIAER's work in the upper North Bosque River watershed also investigated the role of manure incorporation on fields of sorghum/wheat. The results indicate that incorporating manure within 24 hours of land application could help reduce nitrogen and phosphorus losses, particularly the soluble nutrient forms. The costs to producers were shown to be small for most cases. The study also noted that incorporation is particularly relevant in areas where livestock operations are converting permanent pasture to cultivated cropland for forage production. Journal of Environmental Management Vol. 68 (1): 1-11. May 2003.
Analysis of PL-566 Reservoir Production Responses Along a Nutrient Loading Gradient, Small, shallow reservoirs with intermittent inflow present water quality professionals with numerous factors to consider when devising management strategies. As reservoirs, these small impoundments are subject to rapid hydrologic changes that produce extreme variation in a number of physical and chemical limnological parameters over a short period of time. The North Bosque River watershed of north central Texas contains a number of small flood-water detention reservoirs routinely monitored over the past few years by the Texas Institute for Applied Environmental Research (TIAER). Six of these reservoirs were actively monitored from September of 1993 through December of 1998. The land uses in the watersheds above these reservoirs are agricultural, but vary greatly in the intensity of agricultural practices, which results in a large gradient of nutrient loadings to the reservoirs.
The primary objective of this report was to evaluate whether simple predictive models of algal biomass response to nutrient loading accurately predict the range of responses observed in these small reservoirs, which are found in many areas of the country.
Determining Nutrient Export Coefficients and Source Loading Uncertainty Using In-Stream Monitoring Data,
Over a three-year period, flow and nutrients were monitored at 13 sites in the upper North Bosque River watershed in Texas. Drainage areas above sampling sites differed in percent of dairy waste application fields, forage fields, wood-range, and urban land area. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, Vol. 37(1): 223-236. February 2001.
Economic and Environmental Impacts of Alternative Practices on Dairy Farms in an Agricultural Watershed,
Nutrient losses from agricultural nonpoint sources are a key component of surface water impairment across the United States. Nitrogen is clearly the primary pollutant problem in many agricultural areas. However, development of management practices that reduce phosphorus loadings is becoming more important in many livestock-intensive watersheds because phosphorus is often the limiting nutrient for fresh water eutrophication. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, Volume 55, Number 4, 2000
Application of SWAT for the Upper North Bosque River Watershed,
Agriculture, including livestock production, has been implicated as a major source of pollution to streams and lakes. This study was conducted to assess the effect of dairy production on water quality within upper north Bosque River watershed of north central Texas using SWAT and APEX models. Transactions of the ASAE, 2000, Vol. 43(5): 1077-1087
Dairy Lagoon Design and Management under Chronic Rainfall,
Most lagoons for dairy wastewater are designed to contain runoff from a 25-year/24-hour storm event. This paper looks at the impact of varying lagoon design criteria and dewatering practices on the risk of lagoon overflow using 86 years of daily precipitation records for Dublin, Texas. Applied Engineering in Agriculture Vol. 16(3): 285-292
Relating Agricultural Land Uses to In-Stream Storm Water Quality,
The objectives of this paper were to examine the relationships of storm water quality to land uses for 16 storm water monitoring sites within the UNBR watershed and to discuss the implications of these relationships on land-use management within the watershed. This study of the UNBR watershed provides an opportunity to evaluate water quality issues associated with intensive agriculture with a range of agriculturally impacted drainage areas from a least impacted to a highly impacted due to the prominence of the dairy industry in this region. Journal of Environmental Quality Vol. 28 (3): 836-844. May-June 1999.
Determining Nutrient Contribution by Land Use for the Upper North Bosque River Watershed, Over a 4-year period, flow and nutrients were monitored at 13 sites in the upper North Bosque River watershed. Drainage areas differed in the percent of dairy waste application fields, forage fields, wood-range and urban land represented. A multiple regression approach was used to determine export coefficients from these heterogeneous drainage areas to determine the relative contribution by source of orthophosphate-phosphorus (PO4-P), total phosphorus (total-P) and total nitrogen (total-N) into the River. The largest export coefficients were associated with dairy waste application fields followed by urban, forage fields and wood/range. Point source loadings from municipal wastewater treatment were included separately as a nutrient source. While comprising about 7 percent of the watershed, dairy waste application fields were associated with 65 percent of PO4-P loadings and 48 percent of total-P loadings. Forage fields, comprising about 20 percent of the watershed, were associated with 37 percent of total-N loadings followed by dairy waste application fields with 33 percent.
Livestock and the Environment: Scientific Underpinnings for Policy Analysis, Appraising environmental issues requires an open mind and a commitment to scientific principles of inquiry. The local landscape supports a variety of pollution sources. While all of these activities and entities influence water quality, some bear a significant share of regulatory attention.
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