Farmers leading conservation effort

For three farmers in north central Iowa, conservation is critical to the health of their soil, their bottom line and their families' futures.

The men — Wayne Fredericks, Dana Norby and Don Sponheim — are joining other area farmers to reduce the nutrients that runoff their farms and contribute to the pollution of Rock Creek.

It's a big challenge. Farmers in the watershed are not only trying to improve water quality, but their conservation practices are important for flood protection.

Rock Creek feeds into the Cedar River that six years ago flooded Cedar Rapids, causing billions of dollars in damage.

The watershed improvement costs will be significant. The state has agreed to provide nearly $1 million over five years to the effort, with farmers and their partners contributing about $700,000. Altogether, the project will cost an estimated $5 million for big-ticket conservation infrastructure like wetlands and terraces, and $750,000 annually for cover crops and other practices.

It's not all costs, though. Conservation practices could save farmers money — less spent on fuel need for tillage, potentially less spent on chemicals to kill weeds and insects, and less spent on fertilizers needed to feed corn, soybeans and other crops, say farm group leaders.

Farmers in the Rock Creek watershed have set the same nutrient reduction goal as the state — an overall 45 percent decline in nitrogen and phosphorous entering the waterway. They estimate needing about 20 years to reach the goal, although the state has not set a timeline.

While about five dozen farmers participated in planning, the watershed has nearly 45,000 acres that feed it and about 300 growers farming it. To meet the goals, conservation practices will need to be more dramatically embraced, experts say.

"I'm hoping that there will be more adoption," said Norby, who farms with two brothers. "If we as farmers don't police ourselves and do the right thing, I'm afraid we're going to get mandated to do things that we do not like."

On the farm

Iowa leads the nation in conservation tillage, with 8.8 million acres that leave a minimum of 30 percent of the soil surface covered by the previous crop's residue, according to the 2012 U.S. Agriculture Census, released this year.

And Iowa has 7 million acres that are no-tilled, ranking fifth nationally.

Iowa also leads the nation in tiling, 12.8 million acres that are more productive because the underground system enables excess water to move from fields.

Some environmentalist complain the state's tiling system makes it too easy for nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous to get carried into and degrade waterways.

Nationally, 217,931 farms used tiling systems on 48.6 million acres to improve productivity. The Census said farmers reported using tiles along with conservation methods such as buffer strips to reduce water movement.