Sanford is an assistant professor in the School of Agriculture at UW–Platteville. His research interest is in agriculture wastewater management including management of farmstead and edge of field runoff, nutrient management, precision manure application, water recovery and recycling, pathogen inactivation and transport, and emerging agricultural contaminates such as PFAS. His position is funded by the Dairy Innovation Hub.
Biochar has been shown to be a potential method to sequester carbon in the soil to improve sustainability and climate smart practices. However, there is a knowledge gap in the understanding of how biochar amendments will impact crop production systems, particularly those in high yielding soils under extended dairy rotations (corn silage and alfalfa haylage). The purpose of this study is to establish biochar plots at Pioneer Farm to be monitored long-term to assess benefits and risk of biochar applications. Biochar will be amended to fields in both corn silage and alfalfa production and soil health, emissions, and crop production impacts will be monitored short-term, with the intention of obtaining continuing funding to monitor the sites into the future.