Concern
about microbial contamination of ground water from foraging dairy cows has increased
as spray irrigation practices in New Zealand have increased over the
years. Bacteria capable of living in both animals and humans are commonly found
in cow manure. Addressing the lack of research on the topic, a team of New Zealand
researchers studied the transport of microbes from two spray irrigated dairy
pastures into ground water supplies.
The
research team, reporting in the May-June 2010Journal of Environmental Quality
and published by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of
America, and Soil Science Society of America, found little to no transport of
microbes due to spray irrigation application.
When
irrigation applications were increased to simulate irrigation plus heavy
rainfall, there was a small increase some forms of bacteria, notably E. coli.
But other common bacteria were only detected at very low levels when fresh cow
pats where subjected to this treatment.
The results
of the study indicate a minimal impact of dairy farm pastures on microbial
quality of ground water as a result of spray irrigation.
Previous
studies of flood irrigation, which apply much more water less efficiently than
the spray irrigation systems used in this study, have been shown to cause high
levels of ground water contamination. No difference was noticed between two
different spray irrigation systems, a traveling irrigator and center pivot. The
researchers suggest that converting from flood irrigation to spray irrigation
will reduce microbial contamination of ground water and reduce environmental
health risks.