Henry County watershed aims to lower nutrient runoff by 45 percent

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

SALEM ? More than 150 area farmers gathered Wednesday at the Daniel and Sabrina Pidgeon farm, rural Salem, to learn more about the Lower Skunk River Water Quality and Soil Initiative Project, and corresponding conservation practices.

Olivia LaGrange, coordinator of the watershed project and an employee of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office in Mt. Pleasant, said the Lower Skunk River Watershed was launched in July 2015 and is one of 16 watershed projects across Iowa.

The purpose of the projects is to reduce nutrient runoff into rivers and streams and also encourage conservation practices to prevent soil erosion.

?We can improve water quality through nutrient reduction,? LaGrange said. ?Our goal is to reduce nitrate and phosphorous runoff into rivers and streams by 45 percent. Nutrient runoff leads to fish kill in rivers and streams.

?The Skunk River is a priority water body we are trying to clean up because of the high nitrate runoff and heavily row-cropped area,? LaGrange continued.

It is a massive watershed project, covering 134,541 acres in Henry, Jefferson, Lee and Van Buren counties. Some 24.93 percent of the land in the watershed is planted in corn and 22.29 percent in soybeans. Deciduous forest land comprises 21 percent of the watershed and the remaining 18.36 percent is grass pasture.

?Land in this watershed is very diverse,? LaGrange noted, explaining the watershed was a collaborative effort between the Henry County Soil and Water Conservation District and other state agriculture and land stewardship agencies.

A byproduct of the water quality initiative is a drive to encourage farmers to plant more cover crops in the winter. Cover crops reduce soil erosion by improving soil structure and permeability in addition to providing ground cover as a physical barrier between rain and the soil surface. Cover crops also scavenge residual nitrogen left in the soil profile.

Examples of cover crops include radishes, oats, turnips and rye.

George Schaefer, a farmer near Kalona and one of the presenters during Wednesday?s field day, said he is a strong advocate of cover crops. ?We drill them in right behind the combine (during harvest). We used to do it aerially but found the plane missed some spots. We use cover crops to try and make the soil as good as possible. I see cover crops as a no-brainer.?

Schaefer claimed that the yield from fields with cover crops has shown an increase from three to five bushels per acre.

Farmers planting cover crops can also receive $25 per acre (up to 320 acres) from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship to install cover crops in the watershed.

Other conservation practices urged by the watershed initiative are bioreactors, terraces and alternative outlets (buffers).

Bioreactors are a subsurface trench placed along the edge of the field and filled with a carbon source, typically wood chips. Drainage water then passes through the woodchips, which serve as a material for soil microbes to colonize.

The microbes feed on the carbon source and ?breathe? nitrates, converting it into nitrogen gas. The nitrogen gas is then released harmlessly into the atmosphere. A ?farm-scale? bioreactor can treat up to 100 acres of tile-drained land.

Terraces have been a conservation practice for decades. They reduce gully erosion by removing sediment from runoff before it leaves agricultural lands. This reduces sediment delivery and associated pollutants, such as phosphorous and some pesticides to receiving water bodies.

Alternate outlets or buffers also have been incorporated into conservation practices for years. Buffers are small areas or strips of land in permanent vegetation between cropland and a stream or other water body that reduce the movement of sediment, nutrients and pesticides from farm fields.

Federal or state financial assistance is available with most of the conservation practices. To learn more, contact your county NRCS office.

Dan Pidgeon, owner of the farm hosting the field day, was appreciative of the attendance. ?It is comforting to know there are this many people willing to learn. Together we can make a difference.?

Pidgeon said that his farm is truly a family farming operation. Together with his father, he farms about 4,000 acres of row crops.

A 20-year farmer, Pidgeon noted that farms have lost a lot of topsoil over the years. The Pidgeons began planting cover crops in the last several years.

His wife, Sabrina, said good conservation practices are important. ?I think cover crops are phenomenal (in preventing erosion). We have talked about how we are going to leave the farm to our kids,? she said. ?Once you lose the topsoil, it is gone. We want to make sure this farm is viable, not only for us but for future generations.?

The Iowa Water Quality Initiative was established during the 2013 legislative session to help implement the nutrient reduction strategy. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey has requested $7.5 million for the initiative as part of each of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship?s 2016/2017 fiscal budget requests. The department received $4.4 million for the current fiscal year to support conservation and water quality improvements in Iowa.