Unleash Your Potential - Namagunga Girls Coding Club
Clean Rivers, Clean Lake 8 -- Nutrients Discharging from Drain Tiles -- Eric Cooley
1. Nutrients Discharging
from Tile Drains in
Eastern Wisconsin
Eric Cooley
Research Coordinator
UW Discovery Farms
2. What Are Discovery Farms?
The Discovery Farms
Program will develop
on-farm and related
research to determine
the economic and
environmental effects
of Best Management
Practices on a diverse
group of Wisconsin
farms;
3. Discovery Farms
Tile Research
A - Kewaunee County
Two tile line sites
(2004 – 2009)
B - Manitowoc County
Two tile line sites
(2004 – 2007, 2007 – 2011)
C - Waukesha County
Two tile line sites
(2004 – 2009)
7. Surface and Tile Runoff Under
Snowmelt Conditions
Surface Water and Tile Runoff
Snowmelt 2005
3.5 70
Surface-Water Flow
Air Temperature, Degrees
Discharge, cubic feet per
3.0 Tile Flow 60
2.5 Air Temperature 50
second
2.0 40
F
1.5 30
1.0 20
0.5 10
0.0 0
3/25/05
3/26/05
3/27/05
3/28/05
3/29/05
3/30/05
3/31/05
4/1/05
Tile flow began before surface flow
Relative volumes of water flowing in surface and tile were
similar for this snowmelt period
10. Water Budget
Percentage of total precipitation leaving the landscape as surface water
Farm A Farm B Farm C
Surface runoff 10% 6% 9%
Tile flow 24% 16% 16%
19. Take home points
Tile drains can flow up to 365 days a year, even
during frozen ground conditions
Tile drainage can deliver the majority of water
and total nitrogen leaving agricultural fields and
can also deliver significant sediment and
phosphorus
Good manure and fertilizer management is
critical to reduce the loss of nutrients in tile
drained landscapes
Farm C has an estimated basin size which may change with fluctuating water table. The tile numbers for farm C are rough estimates and should not be used for published information.
Farm C has an estimated basin size which may change with fluctuating water table. The tile numbers for farm C are rough estimates and should not be used for published information.
Farm C has an estimated basin size which may change with fluctuating water table. The tile numbers for farm C are rough estimates and should not be used for published information.