Busch is the Research Manager at Pioneer Farm at UW–Platteville. He is responsible for managing research projects that relate to the dairy pasture forage, surface water runoff and the Fever River, and supervises student researchers.
This project will enable equipment upgrades for monitoring water quality and soil health in hydrologic basins 5, 10, and 11. These upgrades will support paired basin research focused on determining the impact farming practices have on soil erosion (total suspended solids), nitrogen and phosphorus losses to ground and surface-water resources, and soil health parameters. The Agroecosystem Research Program is a farmer driven research group conducting on-farm, applied research. Thus, we will engage in discussions with multiple farmer-led organizations, such as, Lafayette Ag Stewardship Alliance and JoDaviess Soil and Water Health Coalition, to implement research related to dairy production systems that will reflect the need of the local farming communities.
At national scale, the Agroecosystem Research Program is a partner of the U.S. Dairy Net Zero Initiative’s Dairy, Soil, and Water Regeneration Project (DSWR) that aims to support U.S. dairy’s goals of achieving net neutrality in GHG emissions and improving soil health and water quality by the year 2050. Thus, the proposed project will expand this data collection effort within the Pioneer Farm Agroecosystem’s Research Program. In addition to supporting U.S. Dairy Net Zero Initiative, the research program is a member of the Global Farm Platform and USDA ARS Long-Term Agroecosystems Research (LTAR) networks. Data collected from basins 5, 10, and 11 will also be used to support these continental and global scale research networks.