Livestock grazing: A tool for removing phosphorus from irrigated meadows

Shewmaker, G.E. (1997) Livestock grazing: A tool for removing phosphorus from irrigated meadows. pp. 261-275. In: Proc. 1996 Wetlands Seminar, Water for Agriculture and Wildlife and the Environ. 1997. U.S. Committee on Irrig. & Drainage, Denver, CO.

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Abstract

Elevated phosphorus (P) loading of wetlands, streams, lakes, and reservoirs
can occur from nonpoint sources such as grazing of irrigated or
naturally wet meadows and palustrine wetlands. The water entering
Cascade Reservoir of west-central Idaho sometimes has elevated P concentrations
(>0.050 ppm) and provides a P load of 54 tons P/yr. The use
of best management practices such as rotational grazing, buffer strips next
to wetlands, and proper irrigation management should reduce overland
flow and streambank erosion. Livestock grazing should harvest and
remove a significant amount of P from the ecosystem from incorporation
into hone and tissue mass of growing animals and beef export from the
basin. About 44,000 ac of mostly flood-irrigated pasture land exists in the
Cascade Reservoir watershed. The Phosphorus Uptake and Removal from
Grazed Ecosystem (PURGE) model uses three separate methods to
estimate P retention in cattle and using limits of the input variables,
predicted that from 4 to 57 tons P could be removed annually from the
Cascade watershed. With proper grazing management, cattle should be
part of a long term solution to P loading and improvement of water quality
in Cascade Reservoir.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
NWISRL Publication Number:	0935
Subjects:	Animal > Animal health Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User:	Dan Stieneke
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2010 21:57
Last Modified:	22 Nov 2016 20:08
Item ID:	1083
URI:	https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/1083