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Incentives for Best Management Practice Adoption Among Beef Cattle Producers and Effects on Upland Sediment Loss

Author: Laura Jane Medwid

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 100

ISBN-13:

Federal programs incentivize livestock managers to adopt best management practices (BMPs), such as rotational grazing, water tank systems, stream crossings, and pasture improvement to prevent or reduce soil erosion. This thesis addresses the challenge of integrating socio-economic data on rotational grazing (RG) adoption behavior with hydrologic/biophysical models to analyze the association between incentives, BMP adoption, and changes in soil erosion. Using primary survey data of livestock producers in an East Tennessee watershed, the study estimates willingness to adopt BMPs among livestock producers. The propensity to adopt one or multiple management technologies, given an incentive, is estimated with a multivariate probit regression. The likelihood producers adopt RG is integrated into the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrologic model to generate upland sediment loss abatement curves for the watershed. Abatement curves specific to each hydrologic response unit (HRU) comprising the watershed are estimated and then aggregated to determine an aggregate abatement curve for the watershed. Based on the abatement curves, HRU are ranked according to programmatic cost efficiency. The maximum upland sediment loss reduction with rotational grazing totals 1,450 tons/year at a cost of $170/ton across the Oostanaula Creek Watershed.

Impacts of Land Use Changes and Land Management Practices on Upland Catchment Sediment Dynamics

Author: Alexander J. Henshaw

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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There is growing concern that the adoption of intensive agricultural land management practices in upland areas of the UK over the past 50-60 years may have affected hydrological responses and sediment transfer regimes in river catchments and could, therefore, be contributing to increased levels of flood risk and ecological disturbance. However, recent evidence from a research catchment at Pontbren in mid-Wales indicates that the implementation of a more sustainable livestock farming strategy could help to mitigate some of these impacts, raising the possibility that strategic land use planning could be used as a cost-effective, multi-functional river management option. The impacts of historical land use changes and land management practices on contemporary sediment dynamics in the study area are explored in this thesis through a system approach which acknowledges the importance of interrelationships between hydrological and geomorphological processes. Results from hydrological experiments and modelling exercises are used to inform analyses of spatial and temporal variation in sediment production and transfer from a variety of potential sources. Grazed, agriculturally-improved pastures were found to supply fine material to stream channels via both surface runoff and field drains. In particular, drain-derived sediment is likely to represent an important component of the total fine sediment yield in subcatchments where agricultural intensification has been widespread. Agricultural drainage ditches were also found to act as sources of sediment in such areas, along with eroding channel banks. Sediment production from bank sources may relate to historical changes in peak flows caused by agricultural intensification. Stream sediment yields are strongly related to differences in sediment supply from the aforementioned sources and could therefore be reduced by limiting mobilisation at the point of origin within the landscape. In terms of channel-derived material, this could be achieved through peak flow reductions associated with woodland and hedgerow restoration.