To be eligible for the $400 CRSB Certified Producer Incentive, producers must maintain and update their certification as of June 30, 2026 or have been CRSB-certified between Jan. 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026 and have completed all related eligibility requirements, including:

• agreeing to share information with the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) for chain of custody purposes
• submitting cattle birth dates into the Canadian Livestock Tracking System (CLTS)
• submitting move-in events on the CLTS
• moved in cattle are to be from CRSB certified operations to maintain chain integrity

Producers can expect the payments in October.

“(The incentive) serves as a thank you from the CRSB and its supply chain partners that the investments beef producers have made to become certified do not go unnoticed,” said CRSB chair Ryan Beierbach in a press release.

In 2023, the CRSB ran a pilot credit program funded by Cargill, which provided a top-up payment to producers who received less than $400 for qualifying cattle in 2022.

“The Cargill Recognition Credit was provided in collaboration with the CRSB, with the intention that this CRSB Certified Producer Incentive would replace it,” said Andrea White, CRSB director of marketing and stakeholder relations in an email to Glacier FarmMedia.

The new incentive will also pay out a full $400, regardless of where cattle were processed, rather than topping up producer payments, White said.

The incentive is also aimed at upholding CRSB sustainability standards in production and processing focused on the principles of natural resources, people and the community, animal health and welfare, food, and efficiency and innovation.

The incentive is set to continue annually with payments determined by amounts of CRSB Certified beef sold by enrolled producers. Funds will be distributed evenly amongst the eligible producers.

There are 1,243 farms and ranches that are CRSB Certified, encompassing 4.8 million acres of grazing land across the country. There are nine companies that source this beef, the CRSB website shows.

To become certified, a producer has to go through a certification body – either Verified Beef Production Plus or Where Food Comes From – which performs a risk assessment based on the findings from an on-site audit of the operation. The operation must meet a minimum level of “Achievement” on the principles of sustainable beef to become certified. Producers may also have to undergo pre-certification training.

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“CCA has launched an online traceability feedback survey to ensure that producers have an opportunity to share their feedback,” the organization said on social media.

It includes 15 questions, including the importance of traceability to the Canadian beef industry, level of support for “enhancing” the current traceability system and the regulations’ importance to producers.

This gathering of information comes nearly one month after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced that it was pausing the publication of proposed amendments to Part XV of the Health of Animals Regulations, which that was intended to occur this spring.

The move followed weeks of outcry from beef producers across Canada.

The proposed regulations are aligned with the Cattle Implementation Plan, which was established by all sectors of industry at the National Cattle Traceability Summit in August 2011 and adopted in 2016. A summary of the plan can be found on the CCIA website.

Many worry that the regulations will unnecessarily burdensome for those who raise, move, feed, and purchase animals.

Across social media platforms and at meetings, producers expressed concern with “government overreach” and said they would not comply with the regulations.

Many producers and provincial organizations also said there had been insufficient communication on the part of industry leaders, the CFIA and the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency.

“The Canadian Cattle Association has, and will continue, to advocate for traceability systems that work for ranchers and feeders and beef farmers,” CCA president Tyler Fulton said in an X video Jan 9.

“Given the Canadian cattle industry’s reliance on export markets, we need to be prepared and have the tools available to manage animal disease events quickly and efficiently.”

Local cattle associations such as Alberta Beef Producers and the Saskatchewan Cattle Association have scheduled producer meetings, with SCA hosting two traceability information meetings in February, weeks after the annual general meeting where traceability and the CFIA were the hottest topics.

“We encourage Saskatchewan producers to take a few minutes to participate and ensure your experience and concerns are reflected in ongoing discussions around traceability,” said SCA on social media.

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“Just a reminder, CCIA, we are the responsible administrator,” general manager Ashley Scott said during the recent Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference.

“CFIA, they are the regulator and the enforcer.”

A “responsible administrator” is defined as “someone responsible for delivering a traceability program defined by federal regulations.”

These “federal regulations” are set by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, responsible for safeguarding food safety. It also sets the objectives of the National Livestock Identification and Traceability program.

“The Livestock Identification Traceability program provides accurate and up-to-date livestock identity, movement and location information to mitigate the impact of disease outbreaks and food safety concerns and natural disasters,” Scott said.

The traceability regulatory changes introduced in Canada Gazette I were working toward Canada Gazette II, and include the proposed changes that the cattle industry was against.

The changes, which face opposition by some in the cattle industry, include:

• Identification and registration of premises where livestock are kept or collected.
• Identification of livestock.
• Domestic movement reporting of livestock.

The changes align with the Cattle Implementation Plan developed by the Canadian beef industry in 2016.

The biggest adjustments for producers include:

• Obtain or keep current a premises identification number (PID) from a provincial government.
• Include a PID when purchasing CCIA-approved tags.
• Report information related to identification of cattle and their movement.
• Report move-ins within seven days.

“The proposed regulations do contain a permission that if a producer does not have a PID (premises identification) … that they can report all the necessary PID associated information, such as the legal land description, contact info, etc., when movements of herd (occur) or tags are purchased,” Scott said.

In Saskatchewan, PIDs have been required by the provincial government since 2017, and origin and destination PIDs must be included on livestock manifests as of 2025.

The CCIA and the Saskatchewan Cattle Association developed a cheat sheet for understanding the incoming regulations that was shared during the SCA’s recent annual general meeting.

According to that document, reporting requirements vary for producers, transporters, feedlots and auction marts, but most of the onus is on producers.

They must report move-ins to their sites, community pastures, vet clinics, cattle shows and exhibitions, although the requirements of each move-in varies slightly.

For yard move-ins, producers would be required to report the PID of the departure and arrival sites, the date and time of cattle departure and arrival, individual tag numbers of arriving cattle and the license plate number, including province, territory or state of the truck that delivered the animals.

It’s the same for community pastures, except instead of individual tag numbers, producers must report the number of head being moved. Reports of both departure and return are required.

A few more steps are required for veterinary clinics and cattle shows, including the date and time when the cattle left the departure site and when they returned and time of arrival to the clinic or show, and when they leave.

Auction marts are required to report the move-in, but the transporter or producer is required to provide information such as departure PID, date and timethe cattle departed and license plate information.

Auction marts will not need to report individual tag numbers, but feedlots will.

Scott didn’t answer any specific questions from the floor and advised producers to ask the SCA to forward their questions to the CFIA or contact the agency directly via email.

Preparation

To prepare for incoming regulations, Scott recommends producers be proactive to help ease the transition to compliance. They can do this by:

• Obtaining a PID through the provincial government.
• Updating contact information for their PID.
• Familiarizing themselves with the Canadian Livestock Tracking System (CLTS) for online reporting and how it can be integrated with a private herd management program if one is already in use.
• Attending information sessions about the regulations hosted by tahe CCIA or producer organizations.
• Beginning to record movement events in the CLTS.

“In the CLTS Resource Centre, you will find those step-by-step guides and instructions that will make using the CLTS easier,” Scott said.

She said the CLTS is the easiest way to report movements to the CCIA by using the web portal or mobile app, uploading an Excel file or using the web services, which is the best option for software providers and high-volume reporters.

The CLTS also works offline, allowing producers to enter their information and save it to upload when they have access to wifi or cellular data.

A less preferred option, though still accepted, is sending tracking information via mail.

“It wouldn’t be our preference if everybody submitted a paper record,” Scott said.

“We still take them, and when we receive them, we will reach out to that client and we’ll confirm the information. We do enter it in the system on their behalf.”

She said the CCIA has updated the CLTS in an effort to ease reporting and ensure compliance. Certain fields were added, such as arrival date and time, as well as a movement reporting module, both of which are optional right now but will be mandatory when the CFIA regulations take effect.

“The movement record is an alternative reporting option, primarily when the departure site chooses to initiate the process,” Scott said.

“The preexisting movement event in the CLTS is a recommended method and allows the destination site to report movements.”

Producers at the conference voiced concerns that producers don’t know enough about the CLTS and aren’t using it.

Scott assured the audience that the system and its uses would be better explained in the coming year.

She said the focus last year was on educating dealers, while in 2026 the CCIA will concentrate on producers and auction marts.

This will include explanatory videos and training sessions if producers and industry groups are interested in helping organize them.

However, changes to the regulations are still to come, and no one is quite sure what to expect.

“Based on everything being paused right now, we could see further changes,” Scott said.

“The information shared is just what was readily available from CFIA after industry consultation.”

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“We are extremely disappointed by PMRA’s decision and ask them to reconsider this decision,” David Marit, Saskatchewan’s agriculture minister, said in a news release.

“We need a federal regulatory system that considers economic impacts felt by producers and the realities on the ground.”

Alberta’s Agriculture Minister RJ Sigurdson, in a separate statement, said he’s also “deeply disappointed” in the PMRA’s decision and called on the PMRA to reinstate the product’s use for farmers.

The annual risk to hay and native pastures from RGS runs above $800 million and “the risk of this exploding RGS population is detrimental to farms and ranches across the country,” he said.

On Oct. 1, 2025, Saskatchewan Agriculture partnered with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation to submit an emergency use request for two per cent liquid strychnine for management of RGS.

The rodent has been growing in population for the last few years and has shown no sign of slowing down.

The submission was a response to concerns from producers and industry about the on-farm efficacy of other registered products for the control of the pest, following the ban of strychnine in March 2023.

Heath MacDonald, federal agriculture minister, had made a verbal promise to the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities in October to support any emergency use applications. The PMRA, however, is not under the jurisdiction of the agriculture ministry.

The Saskatchewan government said it had included “robust, science-based and strengthened mitigation measures” in its proposal.

However, the PMRA said the methods used to prove necessity of strychnine were insuffient to mitigate an acceptable level of risk, which prompted the denial of emergency use.

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Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has deemed these pigs, developed by U.K.-based Genus PLC and PIC (Pig Improvement Company), safe for use in food and feed.

Environment and Climate Change Canada and Health Canada also ruled that environmental and human health risks were no different than with pigs currently available. The CFIA and Health Canada also found no difference in nutritional value, according to a Jan. 23 news release.

Matt Culbertson, PIC’s Chief Operating Officer, called it a milestone.

“We have spent years conducting extensive research, validating our findings and working with the Canadian government to gain approval,” he said in a Jan. 23 news release.

The Canadian pork sector attributes $130 million in annual losses to PRRS, which can cause fever, breathing problems, stillborn piglets and death.

No special label required

Genus PLC doesn’t intend to sell the PRRS resistant pigs until further regulatory authorization in other key markets, the federal government said.

“We are committed to the responsible and intentional introduction of the PRRS-resistant pig around the globe. Gaining approval in Canada is an important step in this process, and we are working with additional countries to gain regulatory approval and protect global trade prior to initiating sales and delivery,” said Culbertson.

The pigs have been permitted for food use in the U.S., Brazil, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic.

The gene edited pigs won’t require special labelling because Health Canada found no health and safety concerns.

“There is a transparency crisis in our food system,” said CBAN co-ordinator Lucy Sharratt. “If the government is going to allow companies to produce genetically engineered animals and plants, these foods have to be labelled for consumers.”

Organic groups and companies have also raised concerns over the lack of mandatory labelling for foods from gene-edited plants and animals.

Health Canada has been working with the Canadian General Standards Board since November on a public review of the National Standard for Labelling and Advertising of Foods.

According to a 2025 study from PIC, consumers will accept gene edited meat so long as they are educated on the reasoning and how it works.

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Agriculture minister David Marit, while speaking at the Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference in Saskatoon Jan. 21., announced $4.5 million in livestock and forage research and renewed $3.9 million to the Prairie Swine Centre and the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization.

The $4.5 million in research is a joint federal-provinical investment between the Sustainable Canadian Agriculture Partnership and the Agriculture Development Fund. It will support 25 new projects, including research for ergot detection in feed and cattle biomarkers for Johne’s disease.

In total, there will be:

• seven beef projects;
• one beef and dairy;
• five poultry;
• two sheep;
• two swine;
• one multiple species; and
• six forage.

The projects were chosen by the ADF advisory committee, comprising academia, industry officials and producers.

“It’s my understanding they’ll get two or three hundred different applications on research and go through them all and really evaluate what are important in Saskatchewan farms and ranchers,” said Marit.

“What I really like about it really removes it from the political side, and it really does address what the industry is really looking for and is wanting.”

Another $1.3 million was contributed by 13 industry partners:

• Alberta Beef Producers
• Alfalfa Seed Commission of Alberta
• Canadian Poultry Research Council
• Manitoba Forage Seed Association
• Results Driven Agricultural Research (Alberta)
• Saskatchewan Alfalfa Seed Producers Development Commission
• Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission
• Saskatchewan Cattle Association
• Saskatchewan Chicken Industry Development Fund
• Saskatchewan Forage Seed Development Commission
• Saskatchewan Pork Development Board
• Saskatchewan Sheep Development Board
• Western Dairy Research Collaboration

The funding to VIDO will help the organization communicate with producers and continue research projects such as bovine tuberculosis vaccine and cache valley disease.

For the swine centre, the focus will continue on animal nutrition, pathology and addressing diseases such as African swine fever and porcine epidemic diarrhea. It is currently working with the government to commercialize the PED rapid test kit it has developed.

Improvements to forage insurance

Marit also announced that the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp.’s satellite forage insurance program will be available this year.

“Satellite forage insurance is replacing the forage rainfall insurance program,” he said.

“FRIP is no longer available, and all existing FRIP customers will be automatically enrolled into the satellite forage insurance program.”

Claims and premiums will be localized at the township level, and producer information packages will be available in mid to late February, including coverage options and premiums.

Establishment of the program follows the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp.’s pilot that was conducted to assess its effectiveness. It provides greater, more accurate rainfall and soil moisture information for producers and crop insurance.

Jolen Shea, vice-chair of the Saskatchewan Cattle Association, was part of the pilot program at her ranch near Kindersley.

“I just found it to be a lot more accurate for what was actually happening on my ranch,” she said.

“The soil moisture measures on a kilometre by kilometre scale, so a rain event that actually happened on my ranch, as opposed to just at the weather station that’s about 20 km away.”

It includes an easy-to-use online portal to access the local data and was “very informative.” Shea said she would often go onto the portal the next day and see accurate, immediate soil moisture data.

The data also accounted for the highs and lows in weather, as well as for heavy wind that sucks out moisture.

“It seems like we’re moving in the right direction,” she said.

“So I really hope it takes away some of those issues and some of that variability that came with selecting weather stations and … playing the lottery game.”

Opening the Chinese market

Those attending the conference were also pleased with Canada and China’s recent trade agreement, including provisions to re-open China to Canadian beef.

JBS recently announced it will soon be sending its first shipment to China.

“I didn’t realize the number was that big … before China put the ban on,” Marit said.

“We were around $200 million worth of beef going into China.… To see that back open, it just gives our producers another market.”

He expects the beef market to increase in the same that the pea market responded following the reduction of pea tariffs — not dramatically but by small and steady amounts.

SCA chair Chad Ross agreed, saying this is “huge” for Saskatchewan and Canadian beef producers, especially with the added value that the Chinese market brings.

“Commonly they would use the offals and the lower end cuts that we don’t like to eat here in Saskatchewan and Canada,” he said.

“So that’s really good for us, but they also have an appetite for the high marbling tasty cuts as well. So there’s a little bit of both.”

The post Saskatchewan announces forage insurance changes appeared first on Grainews.

Glacier FarmMedia – The Moose Jaw Exhibition Company has been placed under quarantine, effective Dec. 22, due to a confirmed case of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) at the grounds.

Quarantine will last 21 days in accordance with standard biosecurity measures for the virus, at the direction of local veterinarian Dr. Laura Baron, who confirmed the case.

Saskatchewan Agriculture has confirmed that EHV-1 has been detected, but at this time, there is no known connection to the EHV detections in the United States or Alberta.

The province’s chief veterinary officer has been in contact with the veterinarian involved and is playing a supporting role in the case.

Second case not confirmed

The announcement of the case was made by the Moose Jaw Exhibition via a Facebook post on Sat. Dec. 20, and halted acceptance of new horses. The confirmed case was a boarding horse at the exhibition grounds, which has since died.

A second potential case has presented in a horse with strong symptoms, but it’s yet to be confirmed by the lab.

EVH-1 is one of the most common strains of equine herpesvirus in Canada, and all horses are susceptible.

According to the University of Saskatchewan Veterinary Medical Centre, “the respiratory disease caused by EHV is most common in weanlings and yearlings. Pregnant mares are susceptible to abortion. The neurologic form of disease may occur more commonly in aged horses.”

The neurological disease is also named equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy (EHM).

Baron confirmed the case as the respiratory disease, although a severe case of it, despite public speculation of it being the neurological disease.

Infection vector uncertain

Concern for the situation is high, particularly with recent cases of the disease in Alberta and multiple outbreaks throughout the U.S.

Reactions to the social media post, and following posts such as the quarantine, have included questions about the situation as well as shock, disappointment and concern.

From Dec. 20 to the quarantine placement on Dec. 22, boarding tenants were able to remove their horses from the grounds.

At this time, the exhibition association and Baron are unsure how the horse in question came to be infected.

“EHV is endemic in the horse population, which means it’s kind of there all the time,” Baron said.

“And by virtue herpes viruses, lots of times you get them, and then they lay latent in the body, and then at times of stress use, the infections will kind of pop up.

“So we actually don’t know where the infection kind of came from, or who patient zero was, or where it started.”

The exhibition association and Peak Veterinary Health, the practice where Baron is employed, have been working in close contact to ensure disease protocols and guidelines are followed.

“I think it would certainly be causation for concern in the equine community,” exhibition president Mel Burns said in an email.

“Being a horse owner and having horses on the grounds myself, I too have concerns. I have tremendous empathy for everyone, especially for the horse owner.”

Focus now on biosecurity

Each horse at the exhibition grounds has its own individual pen and access to its own box stall. Stalls are solid, so there is no nose to nose contact between animals, though there is with pen fences.

Wash racks and common areas have been properly disinfected.

“Our top priority is to ensure the safety of every horse on our grounds,” added Burns.

The focus now is on biosecurity: ensuring no contact between quarantined horses, no new horses coming in, handlers thoroughly washing hands and thorough washing and disinfecting anything that horses come in contact with, including tack, water buckets and feed buckets.

“Thankfully, the virus is kind of wimpy, and so the cold will help kill it, but it can survive, up to two to five days on surfaces and up to 14 days in water,” Baron said.

Some tenants and clients were allowed to remove their horses to quarantine them at their own facilities. Baron spoke with them extensively about proper quarantine and biosecurity protocols.

Baron said he made that decision based on her knowledge and trust of the clients and their ability to diligently follow biosecurity. She knows where each of the horse went.

Owners required to monitor

Owners are required to monitor their horse’s temperature one to two times daily for spikes in fever, as well as look for clinical signs such as coughing, nasal discharge and lethargy.

“If they do note a fever, obviously they should contact their veterinarian right away,” she said.

“And then we should do nasal swabs and send away for testing. And, again, just keeping really good hygiene and keeping the biosecurity standards high.”

If horses begin to present signs, they will be isolated for 21 days following their last day of fever and other clinical signs to ensure they are done shedding the virus.

Once the virus is present, the only treatment is pain medications, NSAIDs and occasionally additional supportive measures until the virus has run its course.

Vaccinations for EVH-1 are available, though they don’t provide 100 per cent protection, much like the human flu vaccine. The vaccines do not protect against EHM.

An information session is being hosted Dec. 23 at 5:30 p.m. at the Golden Nugget Centre in Moose Jaw with Baron and Dr. Tyra Dickson, Saskatchewan’s animal health and welfare veterinarian.

There is also a Teams meeting link available for virtual attendance posted on the MJ Ex Co.’s Facebook page.

For additional support or information, horse owners should contact their local veterinarian. Baron also recommends information on the American Association of Equine Practitioners website.

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The fleece and conformation of Canadian alpacas impressed an American judge at the Canadian Western Agribition Alpaca Halter Show and Fleece competitions.

Beverly Brehm has been a certified judge since 2019 and was particularly appreciative of the care that Canadians show for conformation, such as legs, ears, mouth, and bite, noting she didn’t see a single incorrect bite.

Read: More Canadian Western Agribition coverage.

“It means that they’re placing a lot of value on the things that are very important,” Brehm said.

“Like the eating aspect, being able to graze correctly, get the food in the alpaca’s mouth so that it can grow, and that’s where that correct bite is really, really important.”

Cathy Merkley, an alpaca owner and judge for more than 20 years, chalks this up to the seriousness of alpaca breeders, who she said are keen to continue educating themselves.

“We know good conformation, and so we fixed that early on in our breeding programs,” she said.

“Everybody breeds for correct conformation. If he doesn’t have correct confirmation, he’s out. Like, it’s just simple. So we have that fixed in our herd, really.”

While judging the fleece competition, Brehm engaged in a discussion about breeding capabilities with some of the volunteers. One area that particularly fascinated her is Canadians’ ability to rapidly improve fleece length and continue to produce a very long stapling length.

“In the ‘A’ fleeces that I was looking at, which is the juvenile fleeces, their first fleece after birth, they have a massive stapling, which is not something that we normally see in that age group in the U.S.,” she said.

“And so some of the conversations that we were having was, is it something that they’re trait selecting for or are they doing it out of necessity? Because it is quite a bit colder here, and in order for that animal to survive in the winter months, it needs to have enough fibre for it to stay warm and survive outside.”

Environmental influences may be the most unique difference between Canadian and American alpaca trait selection.

Another difference has been the judging system. Canada weighs fleece as 60 per cent and conformation for 40 per cent, while the United States weighs it 50-50.

Fleece is judged on traits important for processing, such as uniformity of microns (the fineness across the fleece), crimp definition and uniformity and uniformity of colour and length. Points can be lost due to management issues such as improper skirting, weathered fleece and vegetation or dirt.

The 60-40 weighting approach affected placing decisions because when deciding on first place and weighing two animals, the choice comes down to fleece traits.

”I think it probably happened in about three or four of the classes where I really had to make sure that I was focusing on the fleece trait specifically,” Brehm said.

“Versus, ‘yeah, this guy looks great in conformation, but he just doesn’t have everything packed in it.’ So that was a little bit of a difference, besides Canadians having red for the first place ribbons.”

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However, in recent years, new products have claimed to provide micronutrients and are being marketed to producers who want a boost.

These products and claims were the motivation for a SaskOilseeds-funded project investigating micronutrients, looking specifically at boron, copper and zinc within canola crops.

Kaeley Kindrachuk, a canola extension specialist with SaskOilseeds presented the ongoing trial at the Northeast Agriculture Reseach Foundation (NARF) field day in mid-July in Melfort, Sask.

“We wanted to look at whether or not micronutrients increase yield,” said Kindrachuk.

WHY IT MATTERS: Micronutrients have gained more attention as research hones in on their role in plant development and new technology makes analysis more applicable and accessible for farmers.

“But we really wanted to demonstrate the yield and quality response of canola to in-furrow and foliar applications of different micronutrients in different parts of the province.”

NARF is one of five trial sites across Saskatchewan, with others at research farms near Scott, Swift Current, Redvers and Indian Head.

The researchers hope the variety of locations will help them compare results in different soil conditions becauses micronutrients could be deficient in sandy soils, high organic matter soils and soils with high pH.

Boron is important for plant metabolism and pollen production, and has been the most researched micronutrient in canola.

Copper has also been well researched, and it’s suggested that if soil has low copper, polyps will form on the roots. It’s also been noted that copper can have a positive effect on yield, but only when the soil was showing deficiency and if there was manganese present in the soil.

However, when it comes to zinc, very little research has been done.

Kindrachuk said that while it’s uncommon to see a zinc deficiency in canola, if a soil’s pH is high and there have been high rates of phosphorous applied over the years, these two factors could inhibt zinc “translocation.”

The Melfort site is low in boron, while Indian Head is low in zinc and Swift Current is low in zinc and boron.

The study uses seven treatments: a control plot, in-furrow application of each micronutrient and a foliar application of each.

Kindrachuk said the plot had filled in well and was looking good following the rain that the area had recently received.

Key results of the first year will be analyzed in late winter or early spring.

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Some, particularly farmers who have used it to boost production and manage water or salinity on perennially challenging fields, will sing the practice’s praises. Others worry about downstream regional water management or waterway nutrient loading in heavily tiled areas.

The potential cropping benefits of tile drainage have sparked creative methods and research to overcome some of the environmental shortfalls, such as recycling tile-sourced water and reserving it for a farm’s use during dry times.

Agriculture has been playing with some of those concepts for years, such as bioreactors and constructed wetlands to act as natural filters and help address nutrient leaching from tiled fields into wider waterways.

Tile discharge drains water from a wide area to a single point, noted Matthew Reid, an assistant professor and researcher of civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University, during the recent Pan-American Light Sources for Agriculture Conference in Saskatoon, Sask. That potentially opens the door to “build something to try to mitigate some of those nutrient losses,” he said, such as the aforementioned bioreactors.

“The drainage water, instead of discharging directly into streams, can be diverted through basically a trench, which is filled with wood chips … and the purpose is to provide a carbon source for biofilm that can then denitrify the nitrate,” Reid said, noting other agricultural residues can be substituted for the wood chips.

That last point dovetails with his work on improving bioreactors. He’s trying to get a better idea of how wood decomposes and how that affects the wood chips’ ability to filter nitrogen.

Wood is a relatively poor carbon source. One of its biological components, lignin, creates a layer of cellulose that protects the wood from microbial accessibility in low oxygen conditions and slows decomposition.

Lighting up microscopic insight

Using eight-year-old wood from a bioreactor at a Cornell experimental farm, Reid and his team collected nine samples from close to the discharge, midstream and downstream at three different depths. The samples were then taken to the lab and incubated with nitrate.

“We found that there was a significant amount of spatial variability in how effectively wood chips collected from different parts of the reactor were able to remove nitrate,” he reported.

Analysis found that a low carbon-to-nitrogen ratio was linked to more degraded wood, higher surface protein concentrations, and thicker biofilm density. This, in turn, caused a greater release of dissolved organic carbon and quicker nitrate removal. In short, more degradation leads to more denitrification.

“At first that might seem a little bit counterintuitive,” Reid said, “but what this is in fact saying, is that we need the wood to be decomposing and releasing carbon if it’s going to be an effective support and an effective carbon source for the denitrifiers.”

To get a micro-scale, detailed look at what was happening during the degradation process, and to gather ideas on how to influence it, Reid turned to the facilities at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) and the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS). Using these powerful X-ray beams, he conducted micro-tomography and scattering experiments to visualize crystalline cellulose in the decomposing wood and track how its structure changed as it broke down.

At this scale, the team mapped cellulose depletion in their nine samples, with yellow indicating intact wood and blue showing areas of degradation.

“When we specifically look at the upstream parts of the reactor, (and) in the deeper parts of the reactor, we see the surface of the wood as characterized by these bluer colors is telling us that … the cellulose is more depleted,” Reid said.

For the other parts of the reactor (midstream and downstream at the shallow, middle and deep depths), the wood was mostly yellow, indicating it was mostly still intact despite being environmentally aged for eight years.

Reid suggested two reasons for this. The first is that the upstream parts of the reactor are exposed to higher levels of oxygen, which is needed in high quantities for the degradation of lignin. And the second is that concentrations of iron and manganese are higher in the deep, upstream parts of the reactor. There’s a theory that the two minerals could play a role in wood degradation.

His team noted iron accumulating on the surface of wood chips and measured the minerals inside using the synchrotron X-ray.

“We were able to see that in the interior of the wood, we see reduced forms of iron and manganese. (And) by the surface, there’s more oxidized iron and manganese,” he said, adding that proves the minerals’ oxidation reaction effects degradation and release of carbon.

Bioreactors need air time?

Under normal conditions, bioreactors are permanently flooded. However, the permanent flooding limits opportunity for oxidation and, according to Reid’s research, the needed wood degradation.

His suggestion was that the structures might need to be periodically drained.

“Expose the wood to oxygen, and then when it’s reflooded, we can have enhanced labile carbon release, which will then enhance denitrification rates,” he said.

His lab tested the idea and saw denitrification rates rise after reflooding. Reid is still investigating how to optimize the approach and strike the right balance for field conditions.

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