Bill Drury

What are you doing to practice and promote soil and water quality?

We've implemented approximately half a mile of terraces on our ground, grass waterways, no-till, strip-till and cover crops the past six years with rye and oats. Along with the Iowa Soybean Association and IDALS, we've also put in a saturated buffer and 1,000 feet of tile to clean our water before it enters the tile lines or into our tributary that goes directly into the Iowa River.

What needs for soil health and water quality do you see in your region/county?

Many farmers will say, "Gee, that was a big rain, that's a shame. Well, that won't happen again. That was a 100-year storm." I have 260 twelve-ton loads of soil that the county, at their expense, deposited near my farmstead from my neighbor's erosion. Some people don't see a problem. Until we can address that there is an actual problem, that there is erosion, there are those 100-year storms that happen more readily than once in 100 years, then we aren't going to be able to address the issues.

What could be done with more public funding for soil and water quality?

We have to understand that erosion is actually here, otherwise there's not much help.