What can be some signs that a producer might be having water quality issues in their farm ponds?

You know a really big concern would be if livestock are all of a sudden avoiding a watering source that they normally go to.

If you walk up to that source and you see you know active signs, if it smells bad, if it looks bad, green swirls on the surface would be indicative of some cyanobacteria, if you see dead fish, all of those things would be things that would be relatively obvious.

One of the maybe less obvious things is look around your pond and see if you can see any macroinvertebrates or little bugs that are in your water.

And there's a relationship between water quality and the number of invertebrates that are in ponds.

And so see if you can see any little bugs that are in your pond.

Those are just some of the things on the surface that could tell you if there's a concern.

And if the water is usually the hottest towards the end of August, when does it start to cool back down and does that make a difference?

What can be some signs that a producer might be having water quality issues in their farm ponds?

You know a really big concern would be if livestock are all of a sudden avoiding a watering source that they normally go to.

If you walk up to that source and you see you know active signs, if it smells bad, if it looks bad, green swirls on the surface would be indicative of some cyanobacteria, if you see dead fish, all of those things would be things that would be relatively obvious.

One of the maybe less obvious things is look around your pond and see if you can see any macroinvertebrates or little bugs that are in your water.

And there's a relationship between water quality and the number of invertebrates that are in ponds.

And so see if you can see any little bugs that are in your pond.

Those are just some of the things on the surface that could tell you if there's a concern.

And if the water is usually the hottest towards the end of August, when does it start to cool back down and does that make a difference?

[upbeat music] You're tuned in to Agriculture Today, and we start our Tuesday show with part of a Fins, Fur, and Feathers podcast episode where we hear from K State's Drew Ricketts and Joe Gierkin.

I assume there are a lot of mourning dove.

I see mourning dove all the time, you know, just driving around.

They seem to be fairly widespread, but what do the populations look like?

Uh, but like I said, when trees are available, they tend to select those trees.

Are the trends for the populations, you know, are they holding relatively steady over the last decade or two?

What about catch and release, Joe?

Yeah.

You know, one of the biggest things I get called for is stocking fish.

I get calls all the time and people say, hey, I want to stock my pond.

And We start over from there and say why, right? And a couple things that commonly happen.

One, people commonly put bait fish in their pond every year.

Those bait fish are about $15 per pound right now, and it takes 10 pounds to get one pound of predator.

Even a snapping turtle?

Joe, what different kinds of ducks could people be seeing in their ponds?

Yeah, there's lots of different ducks.

And those ducks really dive down into two different groups.

And so the first group of ducks are called dabbling ducks.

People also call them puddle ducks a lot.

And these are ducks like mallards and teals and wood ducks.

And so these dabbling ducks like really shallow habitat.

What type of food are they eating?

Joe, what different kinds of ducks could people be seeing in their ponds?

Yeah, there's lots of different ducks.

And those ducks really dive down into two different groups.

And so the first group of ducks are called dabbling ducks.

People also call them puddle ducks a lot.

And these are ducks like mallards and teals and wood ducks.

And so these dabbling ducks like really shallow habitat.

What type of food are they eating?

Joe, what is pond turnover?

Yeah, you know, water at different temperatures doesn't mix.

And I've been studying water for a really long time and that doesn't make sense in my brain, but it's true.

And so deeper water tends to be a little bit cooler.

Water near the surface of a pond tends to warm up.

And those two layers of water called the epilimnion and the hypolimnion don't mix.

And so the deep layer, the hypolimnion uses up all of its oxygen.

Any concerns for livestock?

Joe, what is pond turnover?

Yeah, you know, water at different temperatures doesn't mix.

And I've been studying water for a really long time and that doesn't make sense in my brain, but it's true.

And so deeper water tends to be a little bit cooler.

Water near the surface of a pond tends to warm up.

And those two layers of water called the epilimnion and the hypolimnion don't mix.

And so the deep layer, the hypolimnion uses up all of its oxygen.

Any concerns for livestock?

So how could someone distinguish this is a jellyfish in Kansas?

Yeah, well, a jellyfish would look like, you know, the jellyfish that we have would look like a jellyfish.

And so it would be about the size of a nickel.

It would have some little tentacles that hang down.

And so it would look like a real jellyfish.

But some of the other things we see tend to be a little bit bigger.

And so one of the other really common things that I see that would be confused with a jellyfish is called a briozoan.

Is this meaning frogs and toads around the water bodies?

So how could someone distinguish this is a jellyfish in Kansas?

Yeah, well, a jellyfish would look like, you know, the jellyfish that we have would look like a jellyfish.

And so it would be about the size of a nickel.

It would have some little tentacles that hang down.

And so it would look like a real jellyfish.

But some of the other things we see tend to be a little bit bigger.

And so one of the other really common things that I see that would be confused with a jellyfish is called a briozoan.

Is this meaning frogs and toads around the water bodies?

And that's something that came about as a result of a petition that and the commission voted on it and approved it and so now the agency colorado parks and wildlife has to try and figure out how to work that into their management strategy

trapping's been around for a long time right so i mean i'm sure that we can go back you know eons and and you know really long periods of time but thinking about more of a modern type of trapping scenario when did trapping really become a thing and and how have it how has it advanced from then kind of to now

A lot of times we associate those with the least amount of injuries, but that's pretty species specific.

know in addition to just managing populations we've talked a lot about harvesting animals when they're causing human wildlife conflict problems and so you know how does that tie into the whole bigger picture of trapping that we've talked about

And you mentioned that these pollinator strips can be anywhere around the land, and so how do they go about getting, per se, established?

Yeah, you know, we generally would put them in areas that are low or marginal production.

So, you know, you see them a lot on the edge of farmlands or areas where we maybe don't have the most productive ground.

And so it's as simple as, you know, kind of letting these things be taken over by nature.

You might need some management actions, things like fire or mowing can really help to encourage the types of plants that we want.

We want to have native grasses and native forbs or If we can have those types of plants, that would be best.

But just allowing anything to build up kind of gives opportunities for these pollinators and the pest predators.

How do wildlife use them?

And what are some of those impacts for wildlife and what causes them?

One of the things that happens is, you know, this can change the temperature of the water that we see in these systems.

And so we're getting rainwater input and the water that's in the ponds has been cool a lot of times.

And so that can change the temperature.

When we see things like that happen, you can see invertebrates start to emerge.

And those vertebrates are going to serve as kind of a food source for a lot of the fish and other animals that are found in that system.

So invertebrates do this really cool thing where they live a lot of their juvenile stage in water and then they metamorphose just like a butterfly would and turn into an adult.

Does this spring precipitation have any impacts for runoff or sediment movement for aquatic life?

And so how is a riparian buffer different than a riparian habitat?

Yeah, you know, the riparian habitat is the area right next to these aquatic ecosystems.

And so they're naturally occurring.

It's kind of a transition zone between the aquatic and the terrestrial ecosystems.

And so they're a type of habitat that extend near all of these flowing water ecosystems.

So a riparian buffer is something that we put into our watershed management plan.

And that allows us to kind of create this type of habitat.

And what benefits do they bring to water quality and water health?

Joe, today wanting to talk about ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites, and why is this something that maybe we should be thinking about right now?

Yeah, you know, water quality parameters are kind of what I'm thinking about.

And this is a good time of year.

And so, you know, as we start to move out of those really, really cold winter months and start to move into some of the springtime temperatures, we start to see some of the changes in water quality.

And so, you know, some of the beneficial bacteria that are breaking down ammonia or nitrites into things like nitrates aren't quite active yet.

So the temperatures of our water is still probably somewhere below you know, around 40 degrees Fahrenheit, maybe even a little bit cooler.

So still really chilly.

As you've mentioned, water quality is important, but what does this truly mean for livestock being willing to drink out of those water sources?

Joe, what list has recently come out when it comes to people eating fish and maybe having some issues?

Yeah, the Kansas Department of Health and the Environment just came out with an updated list of some advisories for which fish we can eat in Kansas and consume and the amounts that we can consume them.

So mostly the list includes fish that are bottom feeders.

So fish like smallmouth buffalo or shovelnose sturgeon would be on that list.

Also some higher level predators.

So the most common one there is probably a largemouth bass that people would see.

Also some other things that aren't quite as commonly harvested like shellfish, so crayfish or clams, mussels, things like that.

What are the contaminants or maybe issues that the KDHE said, maybe we should avoid this?

Do you just go toss the tree in?

Yeah, you know, you can just go toss the tree in.

The best way to put a tree or habitat into a pond is to wait for it to ice over and then go out to the pond or the structure that you have.

When it's safe, you can go out on the ice.

You can put a bundle of trees there.

And then when that ice melts, the stuff will fall through the surface of the pond through the ice and it will sink down to the bottom.

One of the really important things to remember as we're preparing our Christmas tree is that if we just put a tree into our pond without any weight, it's going to float and it's going to be blown to shore.

Do they just go hide in the trees?

And so that's a pretty easy way to just double check and see if something is AI.

You know, I think that it's important too that one of the reasons we're talking about this is that we work really hard as scientists to put out good information and build that trust, right? And so knowing where your videos are coming from and whether there's something that, you know, you can trust, is it verifiable? Looking for the credentials of people that are posting things, are they trying to get a bunch of views? Are they trying to make money or are they trying to get information out there? So...

I think there is value in understanding where information is coming from.

You mentioned a lot of those – a lot of the ways that you can look at a video and tell.

One of the things you can do is look at what is the source, right? Who is posting the information and is it a trustworthy source? So just another thing to look up for sure.

They're just trying to get shared, get sent to somebody or something like that.

Sure.

And we've talked about, I mean, how many experts have you met out there, Drew, that are, you know, quote unquote experts, but are giving information that's well-spirited, but not backed in science and not, you know, it turns out to be poor information.

Is there anything people need to do for their ponds as it does get colder?

So while the fish are preparing for winter, it's also a great opportunity for us to make sure our ponds are ready.

And so, you know, if you're doing any type of management, things like an aeration system should be turned off when the water gets below 55 or 60 degrees.

And so we've hit that temperature now.

It's a good time to turn off your aeration system.

If you're feeding fish, metabolism drops, and so making sure that you're stopping feeding fish or at the very least reducing the amount of feed that you're throwing out from your feeders, great time of year to do that.

If you don't have those types of things in your pond, it's a great time to, you know, check it out, remove debris.

You mentioned turning off the aeration system, but is there ever a scenario where maybe it should be left on?

Is that something that then producers might need to clean out?

Yeah, so that's the sedimentation process.

And so over time, ponds are going to fill in.

If they're bringing a lot of nutrients and a lot of sediment with them into the pond, that's going to cause your pond to fill in over time.

And that's definitely something you're going to manage.

It's going to reduce the amount of lifespan that your pond has.

And so you might need to do something like dredge out your pond more often if you're bringing in a lot of material through the watershed.

If ideally we don't want too many leaves in our ponds, what should we do with the leaves or what are some options?