College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Engaging Students
Search for Chronic Disease Risk Factors in
Horses Leads to Clues about Prevention
Bringing New Life to an Eroding Stream
Value-added Soybeans to Save Money and Environment
Expanding the Learning Experience
Crossing Traditional Boundaries of Science
To Find Health Solutions
Hobby-size Planes May Be Future of
Early Warning System
Improving Local Economies Through Agritourism
Incentive Payments May Reduce Phosphorus Pollution
Protecting Milk’s Flavor and Nutritional Value
Finding a Healthful and Environmentally Friendly Use For Peanut Skins
Supporting Virginia’s Expanding Wine Industry
Virginia Tech Reaches Top 10 in Agricultural Research
Entrepreneurship Education Puts Business Owners in the Express Lane
E-learning Option for Place-bound Professionals
Financial Planning – From the Farm to the Household
New Graduate Program to Train Faculty in Agricultural Education Fields
Farmers’ Markets from Diverse Communities Benefit from Sharing
Families, Food, and Fun
Developing Disease-free Mosquitoes
Mites Make Right in Honduras – or Not?
Help for the Hippos of Zambia
Incentive Payments May
Reduce Phosphorus Pollution
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With more than 70,000 dairy cows in the Virginia Chesapeake Bay Watershed, the potential for excess nutrients to pollute the ecosystem is high. An interdisciplinary team of researchers is using $1.7 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation to offer incentive payments to dairy farmers to reduce phosphorous overfeeding on their farms.
“Every extra gram of phosphorus fed to an animal is excreted,” says Katharine Knowlton, associate professor of dairy science and project
leader. “Unlike dietary energy, phosphorus is notstored in the body for later use.”
Phosphorus pollution can trigger eutrophication, an overgrowth of algae in surface water that accelerates the biological death of an aquatic system. The incentives encourage dairy farmers to stop this problem at the source by giving those who are within 15 percent of the national requirement $6 per cow each year. Dairy farmers within 5 percent of the requirement earn twice that much.
“To date we have calculated eligible payments of $33,000 on 51 farms for the first year of the project,” says Charlie Stallings, professor of dairy science. “These farms, along with two groups that have not completed their first year, will have the ability to get payments in the second year as well.”
The program follows almost a decade of research of the nutrient management in Virginia’s dairy industry. Other Virginia Tech dairy
scientists working on the project are Bob James and Mark Hanigan. Rick Kohn, associate professor at the University of Maryland’s
Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, is also on the team.