Practices
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Collaboration Shines as Conservation Goes Underground in Benton County
Posted onBy Rebekah Jones BENTON CO. (IAWA) – Six Benton County landowners are installing underground filters to reduce nutrient runoff into Prairie Creek and the Cedar River through the county’s first “batch and build” conservation project. The collaboration brings together Iowa Soybean Association, Middle Cedar Watershed staff, and local contractors to make these edge-of-field practices easier…
Posted in Conservation agronomists, CRSWP, Edge of Field Practices, NE Iowa, RCPP, Spotlight Stories -
Urgent: Jan 15 Deadline for NRCS Conservation Funding
Posted onFarmers interested in USDA-NRCS conservation funding for the 2026 planting season need to get their paperwork in order ASAP to meet the upcoming deadline. The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has officially announced a national batching deadline of January 15, 2026, for the first round of funding for several key programs. While the NRCS…
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Farmer Feature: Emery Davis
Posted onHow one Eastern Iowa farmer makes conservation rewarding By: Micaela Cashman Emery Davis farms in Crawfordsville, Iowa, near the Iowa State Research Farm. His small family farm in the Southern Iowa Drift Plain was shaped by glaciers over 500,000 years ago and has been deeply eroded by streams, rolling hills, and valleys. Sloped land and…
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Tile Contractor Duo Shares Conservation Story
Posted onNew IAWA video shares father/son conservation story: “Who doesn’t want cleaner water? I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t care about water quality, especially if you’re raising a family here,” said Chase Broulik, a tile contractor that partners with his dad to install functional water quality structures on Iowa farms. In this video, the IAWA team…
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An Introduction to Drainage Water Management
Posted onManaging Water, Boosting Farmland: An Introduction to Drainage Water Management By: Tom Collins In 1938, the invention of in-field tile drainage systems ushered in a new era of productivity for US farmers. Tile works by effectively draining water off agricultural farmland to prevent flooding and oversaturation within the field. Sometimes, though, this drainage can be…
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ISU Announces N-FACT User Experience Updates
Posted onSeptember 29, 2025 (AMES, Iowa) — The Iowa Nitrogen Initiative (INI) team announced updates to N-FACT, Iowa State University’s dynamic nitrogen fertilizer decision support tool. The updates incorporate user feedback and are intended to improve ease-of-use and deeper understanding of the tool and its outputs. Since release in February 2025, N-FACT has been used by…
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Iowa NRCS Sets Oct. 10 Cutoff for Conservation Program Applications
Posted onIowa NRCS Sets Oct. 10 Cutoff for Conservation Program Applications Photo Credit: Iowa NRCS DES MOINES, IOWA, Sept. 10, 2025 – The first application cutoff for Iowa farmers and other private landowners to apply for conservation practices in Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 through USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) programs is Oct. 10. NRCS accepts conservation program…
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How Iowa Farmers Can Lead on Water Quality
Posted onThe Drop: September 2025 By Joe McClure Cover crops can be a great conservation tool, but they need to be balanced with the needs of the cash crop—and the waterways that stretch across the great state of Iowa. As chief officer at Iowa Soybean Association’s (ISA’s) Research Center for Farming Innovation (RCFI), I spend a…
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Iowa Cover Crop wins Team Award
Posted onIowa Cover Crop wins team award for statewide network of cover crop advocates By Rebekah Jones JEFFERSON, IA (IAWA) — Iowa Cover Crop (ICC), a Jefferson-based conservation business co-owned by Bill and Melissa Frederick and James and Megan Holz, has been named the 2025 recipient of the Iowa Watershed Team Impact Award. They will be recognized…
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ACWA Chairman Wins Lifetime Achievement Award
Posted onHarry Ahrenholtz, Chairman of the Board for Agriculture’s Clean Water Alliance (ACWA), a non-profit committed to improving Iowa’s water quality, has won the 2025 Watershed Lifetime Achievement Award.