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Ohio farmers helping reduce phosphorus runoff, OSU study shows progress toward statewide goal

An agricultural engineering professor at Ohio State University says a new research program is showing the critical role farmers play in reducing nutrient runoff into Lake Erie.

Jay Martin says producers are adopting new conservation practices.

“As opposed to using broadcast applications of phosphorus and putting pellets on the surface of the field, the farmers are using strip till,” he says. “That really reduces the runoff of phosphorus from those fields and gets the phosphorus into the soil where the plants need it.”

He tells Brownfield the five-year study shows a 38 percent reduction in Hardin County watersheds. 

“There’s an overall 40 percent reduction goal for Lake Erie, so we’re really close,” he says. “We have two more years of this project and we’re looking to sustain that and build on that to get even more reductions in the future.”

Martin says the group will continue to use this project as a blueprint to help Ohio reach its phosphorus reduction goal throughout the Maumee watershed.

AUDIO: Jay Martin, Ohio State University