Ottumwa Courier, IA
09-06-06
New manure system designed to help Iowa water quality
Terracing can improve quality and acreage of harvest
By SCOTT NILES Courier staff writer
OTTUMWA — Nitrogen has been one of the major contributors to Iowa’s water quality problems.
According to Terry Steinhart, swine specialist for central and southeast Iowa with Iowa State University Extension, the state has one of the worst water quality problems in the country.
He explained that part of this comes from using a nitrogen-based index for spreading manure on fields.
“The nitrogen moves down in soil and will affect some of the groundwater,” he said.
That’s why federal and state officials are now requiring farmers, for the sake of water quality in Iowa, to change the nitrogen index to a phosphorous-based one, Steinhart said.
“The phosphorus will move off the ground with the soil particles, but that is less of a concern,” he said.
Besides changing the index there are other ways, he said, farmers are able to help clean up water quality.
One of those efforts includes going to a conservation tillage or terracing the land the manure is spread on. Conservation or “no tillage,” Steinhart said is where the ground is not disrupted at all. Terracing is a method of farming, where a dune or barrier is set up at the edge of the land near any waterways that would prevent the phosphorous-injected soil from spilling into it.
Joyce Barre, a dairy farmer in Wapello County, said terracing has been a practice in her family for years.
“Years and years ago my grandfather was on the conservation board and he was really big on terracing. Basically you just build up land so it doesn’t erode and wash away,” she said.
Barre said terracing can actually improve the quality and acreage that a farmer is able to harvest.
“If you terrace, there are more farmable and tillable acres and it improves the quality and value of your land,” she said.
The real challenge, Barre said, is the spreading of the manure.
“You always need more acres to spread what you have. The challenge is to get it there without contaminating county roads, either through building roads through your land or buying or renting more property to put it on,” she said.
Steinhart said there are other ways to avoid the water contamination while changing to a phosphorous index.
Each state has a Conservation Reserve Program set up to help farmers make a living while keeping Iowa’s water supply clean.
He said the program pays farmers not to plant anything on their land for 10 years.
“They get so much money if they do not plant on that ground,” he said.
This is usually applied to acres of land that are more highly erodible or are “easily washed away” he said.
One other solution to the contamination problem is for farmers to utilize the “reparian program.”
This program pays farmers, who have fields near streams, to build grassy areas or lagoons in between the farm land and the waterways to protect the quality of it.
Steinhart said changing to a phosphorous index is just the first step toward a better water quality.
“We need to do something because if we don’t we will lose the agricultural funding we get from the state,” he said. “There are a lot of things that farmers can do to prevent the soil from washing away and we are trying to encourage some of that.”
Scott Niles can be reached at (641) 683-5360 or via e-mail at .