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CapitalPress.com
February 3, 2017
Dairy farmers tackle water quality challenges
By STEVE WERBLOW
For the Capital Press
Using an innovative online
tool to schedule late winter and
early spring manure applica-
tions, Terry and Troy Lenssen
of Lenssen Dairy in Lynden,
Wash., can give soil microbes a
chance to convert slurry nutri-
ents into plant-available forms
before spring growth starts in
earnest, while also protecting
local waterways from runoff of
nutrients and bacteria.
The Application Risk Man-
agement tool — known by the
acronym ARM — developed
by the Whatcom Conservation
District uses a complex for-
mula to analyze local weath-
er forecasts, soil type, crop
Photos by Steve Werblow/For the Capital Press
Terry Lenssen of Lynden, Wash., uses cover crops, forages, corn
and careful planning to utilize nutrients from his cows’ manure
while protecting local waterways from runoff.
density, water table depth and
other variables to determine
whether the risks of runoff or
leaching are low enough to
permit a manure application.
ARM protects more than the
creek and the commercial shell-
fish beds downstream — it pro-
Jill has
Whatcom County dairy producers must use several tools to harvest
the benefits of manure while protecting local waterways and
groundwater from excess nutrients.
tects the Lenssens’ bottom line.
“We got better yields on
grass by at least 1.5 tons per acre
on fields we were going out on
earlier,” said Terry Lenssen.
To qualify to use ARM, the
Lenssens worked with district
staff to conduct a risk analysis,
update their state-mandated
nutrient management plan, and
establish a monitoring program
with sampling wells at one-,
two- and three-foot depths. The
monitoring wells indicated that
using the tool helped the broth-
ers reduce nitrate leaching, says
Lenssen.
The Lenssens’ 260 acres of
forage crops utilize the nutri-
ents from three to four applica-
tions of manure per year. Heavy
growth and mild winter weath-
er generally yield five cuttings
per year, cycling nutrients back
to their 710 cows.
The brothers also practice
“relay cropping.” As they culti-
vate 270 acres of corn ground
in early summer, they blow on
30 to 50 pounds of grass seed
per acre. After the corn is har-
vested, a lush cover crop is
already in place to protect soil
from erosion, capture nutrients
in the soil, and filter sediment
from stormwater. The brothers
apply manure, harvest the grass
for forage in the spring, then
plant corn again.
“It’s usually winter Italian
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ryegrass or cereal rye,” said
Lenssen. “They grow well over
the winter, take manure in the
spring, and they’re good feed.”
The Lenssens are not alone in
their concern about water quali-
ty issues, said Steve Paulsen of
the U.S. Environmental Protec-
tion Agency’s National Health
and Environmental Effects Re-
search Laboratory in Corvallis,
Ore. Paulsen works on EPA’s
National Aquatic Resource
Survey — known as NARS —
which assesses the quality of
U.S. streams, rivers, lakes, wet-
lands and coastal waters.
Paulsen noted that the 2016
NARS report shows 45 percent
of America’s rivers and streams
contain excess nutrients; in the
Pacific Northwest, 31 percent
of the rivers and streams are
high in phosphorous and just
12 percent have excess nitro-
gen. Meanwhile, approximate-
ly 23 percent of the nation’s
rivers and streams — including
8 percent in the West — exceed
thresholds for enteroccoci, bac-
teria that include E. coli.
“It’s exciting to see that
farmers like the Lenssens are
finding protection of water qual-
ity is a big plus for their opera-
tions,” Paulsen said. “As more
and more farmers discover this
and apply innovative strategies,
we expect to see the pollution
numbers found in the national
surveys improve.”
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Carlos (209) 481-7677
Jim (209) 986-0099
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