E4O-L*ncaster Farming, Saturday, August 16,1986
Pesticide Runoff From Home Towns At Ag Progress
UNIVERSITY PARK - Visitors
to this year’s Ag Progress Days
will have a chance to see how Penn
State researchers are testing ways
in which pesticide runoff from
home lawns affects water quality.
“Water Quality and Your Life”
is the theme of this year’s Ag
Progress Days, to be held August
19-21 at the College of Agriculture’s
Rock Springs research facility.
Thomas Watschke, professor of
turfgrass science, is conducting
studies on experimental turfgrass
plots to learn how chemical runoff
affects the water supply. The study
is being conducted at Penn State’s
Landscape Management and
Water Quality Research Center.
Dr. Watschke and his assistants
apply various pesticides and
fertilizers to sloped plots of seeded
and sodded turfgrass that range in
quality from thinly vegetated to
thickly vegetated. Rainwater runs
into catch basins, where automatic
equipment measures the rate and
amount of runoff every 60 seconds.
The water samples are then
collected so fertilizer and pesticide
content can be analyzed.
Dr. Watschke’s exhibit at Ag
Progress Days will include
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enlarged color photographs of the
runoff test site, including closeups
of the measuring equipment.
Captions that describe the
research will accompany the
photos.
The exhibit will also feature a
model of the test plots-a 6’x3’ slab
of sod mounted on a tilted bed.
“Through the photos and the
WASHINGTON, D.C. - An in
dependent board of agricultural
users has urged the Department of
Agriculture to refocus policies that
would “regain profitability,”
rather than continuing to em
phasize expanding production.
In order to achieve the objective
of profitability, American
agriculture must “reduce
production costs--while main
taining or increasing yields-by
making prudent use of available
tools, particularly new
biotechnological strategies,” the
board reported.
The National Agricultural
Research and Extension Users
Advisory Board (UAB) makes its
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model, we want to show people
coming by that this type of
research can be done, that it is
being done and that results are
forthcoming,” Dr. Watschke says.
Although data on pesticide and
fertilizer content in the runoff is
not yet available, the researchers
have found that a thick, healthy
lawn reduces runoff and allows
recommendations to the Secretary
and the Congress in its budget and
program review. These two annual
reports are mandated by
Congress.
The UAB is comprised of 25
members from private
agricultural producers and sup
pliers to review agricultural
science and education policies and
to make recommendations to the
Secretary of Agriculture. The
current co-chairmen are Dr.
William E. Marshall, President of
the Microbial Genetics Division of
Pioneer Hi-Bred International,
Inc., in Johnston, lowa, and Dr.
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water to be absorbed. “We’ve
found differences of as much as 15
times between runoff from a high
quality lawn and that from a
patchy lawn with a lot of weeds,”
Dr. Watschke says. “I think fur
ther results will show that a thick,
healthy lawn will retain most of the
pesticides applied to it.”
“Regain Profitability"
David Stevens of the Diamond
Scientific Co., in Des Moines, lowa.
“The U.S. Agricultural system
needs to focus on profitability in
order to provide America with
staying power in world com
petition. Currently, competition is
dominated by the battle of the deep
pockets-who can survive the
longest in subsidized markets,”
the report states.
“The recent collapse in U.S.
world export market share implies
that the U.S. farmer’s ability to
compete in world trade has eroded
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Other exhibits at Ag Progress
Days will include a demonstration
of how microscopic insect life in
streams indicates water quality,
facts and figures on acid rain in
Pennsylvania, a Penn State
designed home water treatment
system for sulfur and iron removal
and a model showing recom
mended drainage procedures to
control runoff from livestock pens.
during the past three to five
years,” the report continues. “This
issue has significant ramfications
not only for the future of U.S.
farmers, but also for the future of
rural agribusinesses, especially in
the Midwest and other major farm
states.”
Copies of this free publication
can be obtained by writing the
UAB, Room 31&-A, Administration
Building, USDA, 12th and In
dependence, S.W., Washington,
D.C. 20250. The Board welcomes
public comments on the report.
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