Agricultural Stewardship
The agricultural industry ensures a food supply that is abundant, affordable, and safe -- but that's not all. Farmers are also stewards of the land and can be protectors of the waterways adjacent to their fields.
Stone’s team of scientists and engineers lead planning, design, and construction management services for the implementation of a range of practices to manage and treat different potential sources from barnyards and heavy use areas. These include: manure storage, silage leachate treatment systems, milkhouse wastewater management and clean water diversion. Stone staff are knowledgeable about current USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) design standards and funding sources available to support practice implementation.
In addition to planning, evaluation, assessment and design of barnyard practices, our water resources team conducts scientific evaluations of the benefits of different field-based conservation practices such as soil aeration, grassed waterways, reduced tillage, cover cropping, and tile drainage.
Specific services we offer include:
- Edge-of-field monitoring study design and execution
- Field experiments quantifying the effects of conservation practices on nutrient, pesticide, and microbe transport
- Preparation and critical review of water quality improvement plans
- Farm-scale and watershed-scale modeling (SWAT, APEX)
