The MDA works cooperatively with various research partners and has completed a number of studies and projects. Click on individual projects to learn more.
Active / Current Projects
- Adjusting corn nitrogen rates to reduce loss
- Evaluation of four irrigation scheduling methods and their impact on corn production and nitrate leaching in the Central Sands region
- The Minnesota Cover Crop Guide
- Cover crop effectiveness in a series of farm BMPs, 2012-2019
- Improved Design, Performance, and Implementation of Saturated Buffers
- The Cover Crops, Water, and Nitrogen Nexus: How do they impact corn and soybean production and the environment?
Completed Projects
Cover crops, Perennials, or Vegetative Cover
- Dual-Purpose Cover Crops and Onsite Retention of Water and Nutrients
- Improvement of Pennycress Germproof for Use as a Winter Annual Cover and Oilseed Crop
- Water Quality Enhancements in Corn Cropping Systems through Optimization of Cover Crop Establishment Technologies
- Optimizing Establishment of Corn in Cover Crops and Living Mulches to Maintain Yield while Reducing Nitrate Losses
- Winter Rye Best Management Practices to Reduce Loads of Sediment and Nutrients to Minnesota Surface Waters
Phosphorus, Nitrogen, or Sediment
- Real-time crop sensing and modeling for improved water quality
- Measuring and modeling watershed phosphorus loss and transport for improved management of agricultural landscapes
- Assessment of rate and timing of phosphorus application in corn-soybean rotations on the potential for phosphorus loss to surface waters and tile
- Comparison of real-time N stress sensors and remote sensing from unmanned aerial vehicles for precision management of N fertilizer and improvement of water quality
- An Integrated Sediment Budget for the Root River, Southeastern Minnesota
- Sediment Budget for Greater Blue Earth Basin and its Response to Changes in Drainage and River Discharge
- Tracing Sediment Sources with Meteoric 10Be: Linking Erosion and the Hydrograph
Conservation Practices
- Integrated Landscape Management for Agricultural Production and Water Quality
- Optimizing woodchip bioreactors to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus in subsurface drainage water
- Agricultural Best Management Practices (BMP) Handbook for Minnesota Update
- Nutrient Removal in Agricultural Drainage Ditches
- Controlled Drainage and Bioreactor- Research & Demonstration Site
- Evaluation of Nutrient Retention Basins for Treating Drainage from Agricultural Landscapes
- Field Evaluation of Controlled Drainage and Woodchip Bioreactors in Reducing Contaminant Losses from Farmed Fields with Natural Background Estimate: Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Fecal Coliform, Herbicides, and Turbidity
- On-Farm Evaluation of Treatment Methods for Excess Nutrients in Agricultural Subsurface Tile Drainage
- The Agricultural BMP Handbook for Minnesota
Conservation Planning
- Agricultural Best Management Practices Assessment and Tracking Tool
- Assessment and Selection of Sentinel Watersheds as Priority Management Zones for Addressing Impaired Waters
- Evaluation of Best Management Practices (BMPs) in Impaired Watersheds using the SWAT model
- Identifying Priority Management Zones for Best Management Practice Implementation in Impaired Watersheds
- Priority Setting of Watershed Restoration in Sentinel Watersheds
- Targeting Best Management Practices (BMPs) to Critical Portions of the Landscape
- Validation of the Minnesota Feedlot Assessment Runoff Model (MinnFARM) for Use in Assessing TMDLs
Water Quality Sampling
- Evaluation of Acetochlor Losses to Tile Drainage
- Evaluation of Alternative Surface-Water Monitoring Protocols for Use in Agriculture TMDL Load Allocation and BMP Evaluation
- Feasibility of an On-Farm Water Quality Program in Minnesota
Microbiology
- Analyzing and Optimizing Denitrification in Agricultural Surface Waters
- Developing a DNA Marker System for Bacteria from Cattle, Swine, and Poultry Manure
- Growth, Survival, and Genetic Structure of E. coli found in Ditch Sediments and Water at the Seven Mile Creek Watershed
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