Smart Wetland highlights farm conservation efforts

HENRY, Ill. — If the dark clouds of the approaching severe thunderstorm, along with ominous rumbles of thunder, were any indication, the new Smart Wetland at the edge of Rex Newton’s soybean field was about to prove its worth.

“There’s not much water in there right now, but I got to see it in action this spring and I was pretty impressed,” said Newton, a Marshall County farmer who has farmed this part of McCuskey Farms since 1991.

Newton was a guest speaker at the unveiling of the Smart Wetland, a specially designed and located edge-of-field practice to remove nutrients from tile drainage on farm fields, on a field he farms as part of McCuskey Farms. The 1.83-acre wetland was constructed by M.K. Farm Drainage Specialists.

Conservation farming is nothing new to Newton, who started experimenting with no-till in 1982, when he lived and farmed in Bureau County.

“I tried it in 1982 and put in strips. It averaged seven bushels better. I thought, this is interesting,” he said.

Newton’s wife, Deb, and their two grandsons, George and Thomas, were in the audience. The Newtons moved to the Marshall County farm in 1991. The farm is owned by Martin McCuskey.

“We started right away, through Greene Farm Management, and they helped us get started with filter strips, so we’ve had filter strips ever since. Six years ago, we started with the rye cover crop,” Newton said.

“We are still experimenting. We’ve got some bumps in the road there. Five years ago, we started strip-tilling and now we have this nutrient management structure, the Smart Wetland.”

Jill Kostel, senior environmental engineer for The Wetlands Initiative, said field days like the one at McCuskey Farms are vital to spread the word to both the non-farming public and to farmers and landowners.

Field day events can help farmers and landowners learn and see for themselves what kinds of conservation practices can be implemented and what assistance is available to pay for and put those practices in place.

“People say they are aware of these practices, but then they come out to a field day and they have never really seen it before. We know that these practices work. We need to start talking about how much they work and that they are a good investment for your farmland,” Kostel said.

“The ones that we call annual practices, the cover crops, the no-till, these are great for soil health and in the long term that’s going to help your profitability and your resilience to all the different things that are happening in terms of the weather.”

Megan Baskerville, Illinois ag program director for The Nature Conservancy, said the emphasis on and attention to sustainable practices and conservation farming has increased in all sectors, from renewable fuels to food production.

“It feels a little bit different now at this particular moment in time. It feels like there are a lot of people, a lot of entities with goals out there who are pushing a lot of farmers and advisers to consider these soil health and conservation practices,” she said.

“There might be many motivations that bring a farmer to the table to consider new practices, like no-till, cover crops and conservation drainage practices.”

Baskerville said that not the least of the motivations is for such practices to remain voluntary and for the ag industry and farmers in Illinois achieve the goals of the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy on their own, as opposed to being mandated to do so.

“Always in the background here in Illinois, we know lots of farmers want to see us voluntarily reach our Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy goals to make sure we are sending 45% less nitrogen and phosphorus out of the state by 2035,” she said.

“That is going to take a lot of fields implementing these types of practices that we are seeing today.”

The Smart Wetland field day was presented by the Marshall-Putnam Soil and Water Conservation District, McCuskey Farms, Rex Newton, The Wetlands Initiative and the Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership.

Members of the Midland High School FFA from Varna served lunch to the guests.

More information on Smart Wetlands and the Smart Wetland at McCuskey Farms can be found at www.smartwetlands.farm.