Cropping Systems & Water Quality
USDA Soil & Water Conservation Research since 1929
ARS – Columbia, Missouri

ARS Research in
Natural Resources & Sustainable Agricultural Systems
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494 Scientists
159 Research Projects
62 Locations
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Water Availability &
Watershed Management
Climate Change, Soils, and
Emissions
Bioenergy and Energy
Alternatives
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Agricultural and Industrial
Byproducts
Pasture, Forage, and
Rangeland Systems
Agricultural System
Competitiveness and
Sustainability

Water Availability & Watershed Management
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 Effectiveness of Conservation
Practices
Irrigation Water Management
Drainage Water Management
Systems
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Integrated Erosion and
Sedimentation Technologies
Watershed Management, Water
Availability, and Ecosystem
Restoration
Water Quality Protection
Systems
Total Projects: 39
Total Locations: 26
Total Scientists: 133

Climate Change, Soils, and Emissions
Total Projects: 38
Total Locations: 29
Total Scientists: 99
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Enable Improvements of Air
Quality via Management and
Mitigation of Emissions from
Agricultural Operations
Develop Knowledge and
Technologies for Reducing
Atmospheric Greenhouse
Gas Concentrations Through
Management of Agricultural
Emissions and Carbon
Sequestration
Enable Agriculture to Adapt to Climate Change
Maintain and Enhance Soil
Resources

Bioenergy and Energy Alternatives
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Feedstock Development (Enable new varieties and hybrids of bioenergy feedstocks with optimal traits)
Sustainable Feedstock
Production Systems (Enable new optimal practices and systems that maximize the sustainable yield of high-quality bioenergy feedstocks)
Biorefining (Enable new, commercially preferred biorefining technologies)
Total Projects: 14
Total Locations: 6
Total Scientists : 45

Agricultural and Industrial Byproducts
Total Projects: 16
Total Locations: 14
Total Scientists: 50
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Management,
Enhancement, and
Utilization of Manure
Nutrients and
Resources
Manure Pathogens and
Pharmaceutically Active
Compounds (PACs)
Atmospheric Emissions
Developing Beneficial
Uses of Agricultural,
Industrial and Municipal
Byproducts

Pasture, Forage, and Rangeland Systems
Total Projects: 36
Total Locations: 24
Total Scientists: 116
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Rangeland Management
Systems to Improve
Economic Viability and
Enhance the Environment
Pasture Management
Systems to Improve
Economic Viability and
Enhance the Environment
Sustainable Harvested
Forage Systems for
Livestock,
Bioenergy and
Bioproducts
Sustainable Turf Systems

Agricultural System
Competitiveness and Sustainability
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Agronomic Crop
Production Systems
Specialty Crop
Production Systems
Integrated Whole Farm
Production Systems
 Integrated Technology and Information to
Increase Customer
Problem Solving Capacity
Total Projects: 16
Total Locations: 16
Total Scientists: 50

1929 USDA
Bureau of Soils & Chemistry, Bureau of Public Roads
1930 Bethany Erosion Plots started
1933 Dept of Interior - Soil Erosion Service
1935 USDA-Soil Conservation Service
1937 McCredie Erosion Plots started
1953 USDA-ARS
1961 North Central Hydrology Research Watershed
Added Treynor IA Deep Loess station
1971 Goodwater Creek Experimental Watershed
1988 Merged Watershed and Crop Production
1990 MSEA project, followed by ASEQ project
2000 Irrigation research started at Delta Center
2003 CEAP project

• John Sadler, Research Leader
• Claire Baffaut, Hydrologist
• Newell Kitchen, Soil fertility
• Bob Lerch, Soil chemistry
• Bob Kremer, Microbiology
• Ken Sudduth, Sensor engineering
• Earl Vories, Irrigation engineering

• Technical expertise:
– Production operations
– Hydrology
– Soil fertility, physics, and microbiology
– Water and soil chemistry
– Molecular biology
– Machining and fabrication
– Electronics
– GPS
– Computer programming
– Modeling
– Databases
– GIS
– CAD
– Image analysis
– Statistical analysis

• Offices and laboratories
– Agricultural Engineering
– Anheuser-Busch Natural Resources
– Delta Research Center
• Support buildings
– Field Research Building, South Farm
– Tee Building, South Farm
– Centralia Research Support Building

• General description
– Start of record April 1971
– Located north of Centralia
– Area of 28 mile 2 (72.5 km 2 )
• Measurements and flow sites
– 3 stream weirs, Weir 1 remains in service
– 3 fields with weirs, Field 1 remains in service
– 30 plots 0.85 acre (0.34 ha)
– 9 rain gages
– Weather station
– 5 Groundwater well nests
• Data in STEWARDS database system

• MU South Farm
– SPARC
– N-sensing plots
• MU Bradford Farm
– Rainfall simulator plots
– Kremer plots
• Mark Twain Lake/Salt River basin CEAP
• Tucker Prairie, Prairie Fork Cons. Area
• MU Delta Research Center
– Marsh, Lee, Rhodes Farms
• Producer fields

• Division of Food Systems and
Bioengineering
– Biological Engineering
– Agricultural Systems Management
– WQ Extension
– Delta Center Irrigation Engineering Extension
• School of Natural Resources
– UM Center for Agroforestry
– Soils, Environmental and Atmospheric Sciences
– Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences
• Division of Plant Sciences
– Agronomy
– Soils Extension
– Delta Center DPS researchers

• CEAP
• Mississippi River Basin Initiative
• Active light sensing for N management
• CAP biomass proposal
• White River Irrigation District
• Howard G. Buffet Foundation
• Brazil Center for Advanced Studies in
Weed Research, Univ.of Maringá
• LTAR network planning

• Productive staff with key skillsets
• Good facilities
• Modern instruments and laboratories
• Key long-term infrastructure
• Many stakeholders
• Highly collaborative research
• Access to very large talent pool in MU
• Acknowledged as productive unit