Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Iowa Learning Farms December Webinar: ISA Bioreactors

Date: Wednesday, December 19th, 2012

Start: 11:30 am End: 12:15 pm

Location: Online webinar

Contact: Carol Brown, 515.294.8912, cbrown1@iastate.edu

The Iowa Learning Farms’ monthly webinar will feature Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) watershed management specialist Keegan Kult.

Kult has been at ISA for four years, after graduating from Iowa State University with a M.S. in environmental science and a B.S. in forestry. Kult works with farmers to incorporate best management practices into their operations and also conducts edge-of-field monitoring. Keegan currently monitors a network of 18 bioreactors on private farms for ISA. His webinar will discuss the latest results from these bioreactors.

A denitrifying bioreactor is an edge-of-field practice featuring an excavated area that is filled with woodchips and then covered with soil. Water flowing through tile drains in the field is routed through the bioreactor to reduce the amount of nitrate through conversion to nitrogen gas by natural denitrifying bacteria. After passing through the bioreactor, water released through the outlet contains 30 to 70 percent less nitrate than the water flowing in the bioreactor. This process helps to lessen the amount of nitrate that eventually ends up in the Mississippi River and downstream to the Gulf of Mexico’s hypoxic zone (or Dead Zone).

The webinar is part of a series, hosted by ILF, held on the third Wednesday of each month. The webinars are held over the noon hour through Adobe Connect. All that is needed to participate is a computer with Internet access. The topics discussed will be beneficial for technical service providers, watershed project coordinators, Extension specialists and anyone else interested in the topic of the month.

Related information

Listen to the archived webinar [Adobe Connect archive website]

View other ILF webinars  http://www.extension.iastate.edu/ilf/Webinars/

About Iowa Learning Farms: ILF is a partnership between the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa Natural Resources Conservation Service and Iowa Department of Natural Resources (USEPA section 319); in cooperation with Conservation Districts of Iowa, the Iowa Farm Bureau and the Iowa Water Center.