IFB supporting cover crop trials, outreach

MAGNOLIA, Ill. — Implementation of cover crops will play a major role in reaching the goals established by the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy and a farm organization is helping to deliver that message directly to farmers this summer.

Illinois Farm Bureau is hosting a dozen Nutrient Stewardship Field Days this summer across the Prairie State, several of which include details of on-farm cover crop trials.

The state’s NLRS, released by the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency in July 2015, calls for wastewater treatment plants, urban areas and agricultural areas to reduce the state’s phosphorous load by 25% and its nitrate-nitrogen load by 15% by 2025. The eventual target is a 45% reduction in the loss of these nutrients to the Mississippi River.

When applied to all tile-drained acres in Illinois, a cover crop led to the largest nitrate-nitrogen loss reduction of any practice: 84 million pounds per year or 20.5% of the baseline. When applied to all non-tiled acres, the N reduction was 32 million pounds per acre per year, according to research data in the Illinois NLRS.

University of Illinois and Iowa State University trials have found nitrate-nitrogen losses reduced by around 30% in both non-tiled and tile-drained fields with corn/soybean rotations and cover crops.

Statewide Efforts

Cover crops have been among the topics at field days hosted by the county Farm Bureaus in Jefferson, Franklin, Richland, Lawrence, Clinton, Marshall-Putnam, Jo Daviess and Clinton counties. The Warren-Henderson Farm Bureau will host a field day on Aug. 26.

The field days are hosted with support through IFB’s Nutrient Stewardship Grant Program. Topics also have included nitrogen strip field trials results, woodchip bioreactor research and other topics.

During the recent Marshall-Putnam Farm Bureau cover crop field day, Lauren Lurkins, IFB director of environmental policy, gave the background on the development of the state’s NLRS and IFB’s grants.

“With regard to ag best management practices we’re looking at things like following the maximum return to nitrogen and at edge of field practices, but one of the shining stars among all of it is why we’re here today – the role that cover crops can play on reducing our nutrient loads,” Lurkins said.

“When we think about the role of cover crops we initially in this state started talking about them for their benefits that could be seen because of water quality but we know over time that we have seen soil health improvements and most recently we’ve been having conversations about carbon and carbon sequestration.

“From an Illinois Farm Bureau standpoint we are really proud that our board of directors since 2015 has committed over $2 million to be able to implement the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy. We also have representatives here from corn and soybeans and I know they have their own programs and their own investments.”

IFB committed over $150,000 in 2021 for its Nutrient Stewardship Grant Program with 28 counties working together on 21 projects throughout the state.

Grant Focuses

Lurkins said the IFB is focusing on the following areas related to nutrient loss reduction strategies and its grant program:

• IFB conducts education and outreach through its communication platforms.

• The organization uses time and resources to support academics in best management practices research. Projects at Illinois State University, Western Illinois University, University of Illinois and Southern Illinois University include researchers reaching out to local farmers to host on-farm trials, seeking access to outside funding and opportunities to communicate those findings. “We spend a lot of time making sure our research community is aware of the questions that farmers have and that we can kind of close that loop with research findings,” Lurkins said.

• The program supports farmer implementation efforts across the state. “We work in ways that make sense for local agriculture and the local farmer members. One of those ways is through our nutrient stewardship grant program to the counties,” Lurkins said.

• The grant program’s progress is disseminated through the publication of an annual report of the state’s environmental efforts. “We send them to our farmer members, to members of Congress, state legislators, state and federal agencies (environmental, agriculture and Department of Natural Resources), all the folks who may have a program or regulatory abilities that would touch farmers,” Lurkins said. “We want them to know what the state’s largest farm organization is doing to look for solutions that benefit not only the farmers but also the environment. This is an effort that we have to continuously make sure we have. We always have new people in office. We always have new people running our agencies at the federal and state levels. We do this to showcase our individual members and our organization.”