Iowa Governor Terry Branstad says if legislators adopt his water quality proposal in 2017, there will be more money spent to test the state’s waterways, to see if nitrate levels are declining.

 

Branstad says Iowa State University and the University of Iowa have projects that evaluate structures and practices designed to keep farm chemicals out of the state’s rivers and lakes. A Tama County farmer who served as president of the Iowa Pork Producers six years ago says he’ll install a second structure to divert surface water draining off his farm this fall. John Weber of Dysart says the data from the first “saturated buffer” he has on his farm shows it’s working to ensure nitrates aren’t reaching the Cedar River Watershed.

 

Weber is planting cover crops on 800 acres of corn and soybean fields. He has abandoned his previous practice of applying all his nitrogen fertilizer in the fall. Instead, Weber applies a third of it in the fall, a third in the early spring and then a third of it several weeks later when the crop needs nitrogen the most.

Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey says there are currently 45 “demonstration projects” underway around the state to show how nitrogen and phosphorus run-off can be reduced by land-management practices.