The privately owned and operated Fred Shininger farm in Fulton County
contains 20 acres of subirrigated cropland, a newly constructed 1.5 acre
wetland (water surface and adjacent habitat area), and an existing 2.0
acre water-supply reservoir.
Demonstration and research sites were established in the Maumee River watershed following subirrigation/drainage systems research conducted by the USDA - ARS. This research was conducted cooperatively with The Ohio State University at the Wooster Branch Station of OARDC and the Northwest Branch Station of OARDC in Hoytville. There are three demonstration projects in the Maumee River watershed in Northwestern Ohio; one each in Defiance, Van Wert, and Fulton counties. Each site contains a constructed wetland (installed on prior converted cropland), a water supply reservoir, and a field-scale corn/soybean production system where the crop is irrigated through a subirrigation/drainage system.
In addition, an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research team is evaluating a coupled subirrigated corn and soybean production and seasonal wetland system in Pike County at the PREC. Plots in the coupled wetland-agricultural system are drained in the spring for planting, subirrigated during the growing season, drained in the fall for harvest, and converted to wetland hydrology from late fall to early spring. This integrated system may provide sustained corn and soybean yields, and help remediate excessive nitrate-N levels in drainage waters.
The privately owned and operated Fred Shininger farm in Fulton County
contains 20 acres of subirrigated cropland, a newly constructed 1.5 acre
wetland (water surface and adjacent habitat area), and an existing 2.0
acre water-supply reservoir.