Research Activities

My research background has been in soil-plant relations, and physical processes in soils that affect root growth. That has led me to work on soil tillage, land drainage, nitrate leaching, and nutrient balances. My current research program is listed below.

Manure Management Issues

This is a major area of my research
Check out the webpages at http://www.uoguelph.ca/OAC/ManSys/

1	Development of a decision support system for manure management. This project integrates information from studies in livestock nutrition, gaseous losses of nitrogen from barns and manure stores, and from soils during and after manure applications, organic matter transformations in the soil, losses of nutrients to water resources, the availability of nutrients to arable crops and the nutrient content in the resulting feed. It also deals with bacteriological contamination of water resources. Adrian Unc completed a M.Sc. project looking at the transport of nitrogen and bacteria to ground water following land application of animal manure. Publications
2	Identification of indicator bacteria for contamination of rural wells by livestock manures, and stratigraphies conducive to bacterial transport. This project was the subject of a Ph.D. thesis by Mary Jane Conboy. We selected a series of indicators: total coliforms, faecal coliforms, faecal streptococci, and Clostridium perfringens. We investigated their presence in 300 rural domestic drinking water wells. Mary Jane also demonstrated that the presence of Clostridium perfringens was a good indicator of animal manure being the source of bacterial contamination in domestic farm wells. Publications
3	Evaluation of extraction techniques for estimating potentially available nitrogen in soils and manures for crops. Farmers have little confidence in the nutrient credit from manure applications. With the increased expectation that nutrient management planning will help to overcome the deterioration in the quality of surface and ground water, Peter Smith and I are investigating the use of different extractants for soils and manures that will provide an index of the plant available N, including the organic fraction that will become available in the season immediately following land application. This project is supported by Ontario Corn Producers and Ontario Pork. Publications

Best Management Practice

I am working with farmers, provincial ministry officials, local municipality representatives, and other researchers to help farmers identify the benefits and disbenefits of adopting best management practices.

4	Development of a framework for evaluating the efficiency of nutrient management on farms. Farmers are enthusiastic about adopting best management practices for nutrient management, but it is difficult to decide where real gains can be made to improve the efficiency of production and have measurable impacts on the environment. Publications
5	Factors affecting N₂-fixation by soybeans Estimating N₂-fixation is a major limitation to the adoption of nitrogen budgets for estimating nutrient efficiency on farms. The project considers effects due to soil mineral N, native VAM fungi, and grazing of legume-rich pastures. Publications

Farming Systems

Farming systems research traditionally has not been applied to intensive agriculture. To broaden the understanding of the complex interactions that exist in the agri-food industries, a Farming Systems Research program was initiated at the University of Guelph.

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Communications, linkages and transformations among biophysical and socio- economic components of a farming system.

Current Supporting Agencies

Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
Ontario Corn Producers
Ontario Pork
Dairy Farmers of Ontario

Current Research Associates
Dean Barry
Sigen Chen
Peter Smith

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