Seth Watkins
County:
Page
Q&A
What are you doing to practice and promote soil and water quality?
Keeping HEL land in permanent forage, planting trees, building ponds, advocating for IWILL in Iowa.
What is being done in your county to support soil and water quality?
Three biggest impacts are from: 1.) Water Quality Initiative, using GIS to help farmers identify acres not suitable for crops and technical assistance to convert those acres to forage. 2.) IDALS cost share for cover crops is providing a financial incentive to try cover crops. 3.) IDALS Water quality money is being used to build ponds that are nutrient sinks for farmland.
What could be done with more public funding for soil and water quality?
Funding for exterior fence would incentivize more grazing of annuals, both winter covers and summer annuals as a third species rotation. Investment in local infrastructure that encourages crop diversification, for example flour mills for cereal grains and oil presses for oil seed crops. Investment in better utilization of oats in livestock rations. Utilize ISU owned farmland for regional farmer led scalable demonstration farms.
