Farmers invest record amount in conservation

Iowa farmers invested a record amount of money in conservation and water quality practices for the third year in row, with support from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) and Iowa's 100 Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig reported last week.

State cost-share funding leveraged $56.42 million in conservation practice implementation during the last fiscal year, an increase of nearly $3.8 million over the previous record year and $22 million more than was invested a decade ago. Farmers and landowners matched every dollar the state contributed with $1.15 in investment.

And that's just one piece of the pie when it comes to conservation practice implementation.

The record investment totals shared by IDALS don't consider all other conservation and water quality funding paid for by farmers and landowners, other government entities and other private partners, Naig noted. They also don't factor in other IDALS programs such as the wetlands program, batch-and-build projects for saturated buffers and bioreactors, and abandoned mine land reclamation projects, among others.

Iowa was the first state to appropriate state funds for conservation practices in 1973 through the Iowa Financial Incentive Program, commonly known as "cost share," IDALS notes.

There's an opportunity to get involved this fall with state cost-share funds available for farmers planting cover crops, farmers transitioning to no-till or strip till and for first-time users of a nitrogen inhibitor for fall-applied anhydrous ammonia fertilizer. To learn more, visit your local Soil and Water Conservation District office.