New & Innovative Conservation Practices
Since the inception of the Demonstration Farms in 2015, the Ohio Demo Farms team has expanded the project’s reach to additional demonstration sites across the state of Ohio.
Through engaging in partnerships with various water quality research groups, these additional research sites are primarily serving as testing sites for new and innovative conservation practices, such as saturated buffers and subsurface nutrient placement.
Satellite Research Sites
Saturated Buffer Research Site
In 2020, the Ohio Demo Farms project started supporting a three-year saturated buffer research site within the Grand Lake St. Mary’s (GLSM) watershed in conjunction with Wright State University’s Lake Campus. With over a decade of experience in water quality monitoring, researchers at the Lake Campus have been extensively involved in conservation and water quality efforts, making this partnership a perfect fit to determine whether new conservation practices like this one are effective in reducing nutrient runoff.
George Family Farms Research Site
Ohio Demo Farms is one of six water quality groups across the midwest to participate in the Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) in collaboration with Wisconsin’s Water Resources Monitoring Group that seeks to understand the impact of soil health on water quality. The Ohio Demo Farms team is working with George Family Farms in Arcadia, Ohio to test the effectiveness of subsurface nutrient placement in a no-till setting. This project will compare, both agronomically and economically, the differences between subsurface nutrient placement versus broadcasting nutrients on top of the soil surface.
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