ARS | Publication request: Evaluation of Geospatial Models for Estimating Nutrient Distribution in a Vegetative Treatment Area Used for Feedlot Runoff Control

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: October 20, 2006
Publication Date: November 14, 2006
Citation: Woodbury, B.L., Eigenberg, R.A., Nienaber, J.A. 2006. Evaluation of Geospatial Models for Estimating Nutrient Distribution in a Vegetative Treatment Area Used for Feedlot Runoff Control. [abstract]. Soil Science Society of America 2006 International Meeting. CDROM 217-20.

Technical Abstract: Liquid runoff from cattle feeding operations can be 1) held in long-term storage or 2) temporarily held in a settling basin, then discharged to a vegetative treatment area (VTA) for nutrient utilization. The second option has been shown to be effective on the short-term, but long-term sustainability is yet to be determined. Understanding the spatial nutrient distribution within the VTA would allow for total nutrient mass to be monitored year to year for evaluating long-term sustainability. Geostatistical estimation methods can involve the nutrient of interest as a primary variate, combined with a lower cost secondary variate such as soil conductivity. Prediction methods that use a primary and secondary variate often rely on cokriging as the method for spatial nutrient distribution estimation. Previous work with cokriging has shown it to provide only marginal improvement over simple kriging methods. Also, cokriging requires a large number of expensive samples to adequately estimate the primary variate spatial distribution. This study was conducted to compare estimation methods for determining spatial distribution of nutrients across a VTA. Multiple linear regression methods will be investigated in addition to simple kriging, cokriging. A research VTA for a cattle feedlot at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) at Clay Center, NE serves as the test facility for the study.