Research and Engagement
The Agricultural Water Quality Program (AWQP) develops, demonstrates, validates, and promotes agricultural Best Management Practices (BMP’s) for Colorado producers. BMP’s are recommended methods and structures designed to prevent or reduce water pollution to the extent technically and economically practical. Support, funding and advice from commodity groups, independent crop consultants, individual producers, state and national regulators continues to guide the work of the AWQP and helps ensure enhanced impact of our team’s efforts.
Select Projects
Edge of Field Monitoring | Filter Strip Study | Conservation Tillage Research | Soil Health | Low Cost Technology to Improve Environmental Monitoring | Alfalfa CreditingSugarbeet Crop Monitoring System
Explore Our Current and Past Projects
Our Story Map provides an interactive way to learn more about our projects. The AWQP has worked on sites across the state of Colorado, from Gunnison to Greeley.
Edge of Field Monitoring
Edge of Field (EoF) water quality monitoring is the most direct way to assess agricultural water quality runoff. Flow measuring devices include automated water samplers, soil moisture sensors, groundwater piezometers, and weather sensors. Research includes collecting baseline water quality data then quantifying the effects of implemented BMPs over time. To make the water quality equipment more accessible, the team is developing a low-cost water quality sampler.
Benefit: Provide water quality data to the producer, quantify the benefits of BMPs on water quality and soil health, improve irrigation efficiency.
Low-Cost loT Water Sampler
The AWQP team is working on a development and testing of a low-cost water quality sampling system. This system is intended to significantly reduce the cost of water quality research equipment. These devices will help reduce the cost barriers to expand EOF monitoring sites and increase access to entities that cannot afford research grade equipment. The team is currently in the field-testing phase with the low-cost and traditional water quality samplers side by side. Preliminary results show the low-cost sampler demonstrating promising results as compared to the traditional water sampling system.
Vegetative Filter Strip
A vegetative filter strip is a Best Management Practice (BMP) which is typically a plot of grass or native vegetation that lies between an agricultural field and a waterway. The AWQP program is testing the effectiveness of vegetative filter strips. They are designed to intercept sediment, nutrients and pollutants before the runoff enters a water body.
Benefits: Improving water quality of farm runoff, turnrows and forage for on-farm use or cash crops.
Conservation Tillage Research
Since 2011, a demonstration conservation tillage site is comparing three tillage systems at the CSU Agricultural Research, Development and Education Center (ARDEC) on a 14-acre surface irrigated field. Strip-till, minimal till, and conventional tillage are established in production-length plots. Understanding the relationship between soil and water quality will improve the way agricultural systems are managed.
Benefits: Increase in macrofauna quantity, improve water infiltration rates, and aggregate stability and reduce erosion through a reduction of TSS, TKN and P.
Soil Health
Accessing soil quality is an integral part of understanding the overall ecological health of an agricultural system. The AWQP team analyzes soil parameters including; soil bulk density, infiltration, soil macrofauna, soil fertility and % residue cover. This data is utilized to better interpret water quality data.
Alfalfa Nitrogen Crediting
There is evidence in the literature that current land grant Universities’ year one and two alfalfa nitrogen credits may be too low on some fields. In order to assess these recommendations in Colorado, in 2017 a study established alfalfa and corn field sites at three research stations (ARDEC, Rocky Ford, Fruita) and one on-farm site with a sandy loam or loamy sand soil type. Soil samples are taken at each site to a depth of three feet. A 0-8” representative sample is collected to assess routine fertility and identify residual soil nitrogen, phosphorus and any other potentially yield limiting factors.
Sugarbeet Crop Monitoring System
As technology improves and scale, low-cost alternatives to traditional environmental sensors continue to emerge in the agricultural sector. In sugar beet production, two main operations have been identified by the CSU AWQP, in collaboration with Western Sugar (WS) as an opportunity to capitalize on integrating low-cost, Internet of Things (IoT) sensing into the sugar production process: 1) detecting sugar beet susceptibility to cercospora leaf spot (CLS), a common and detrimental leaf pest, and 2) detecting sugar loss in post-harvest sugar beet piles with temperature sensors.
Connect With Us Today
Contact the Agricultural Water Quality Program
Colorado State University
Plant Sciences Building, Room C003
Fort Collins CO 80523