DONAHUE, Iowa — Farmers in Iowa can now get money to help with water conservation and soil health through cover crops, nitrogen inhibitors and for transition to no-till or strip-till practices.
According to a report from Successful Farming, an agriculture magazine, farmers planting cover crops for the first time can apply for a $25 per acre cost share, while farmers with experience using cover crops can get up to $15 per acre.
The money will be sent to farmers in July. Those who choose to take advantage of this initiative can get that cost share for up to 160 acres of land. According to the same report, in 2022, more than $7 million dollars was given out to Iowa farmers in this program. And in 2021, cover crops were used on more than 2.8 million acres of Iowa farmland.
News 8's Charles Hart spoke with the owner of Cinnamon Ridge Farms in Donahue, Iowa John Maxwell who supports this program, and said it's vital to the survival of farmland in the heartland.
"Through my 30-plus years of farming, we have had a lot of no-till situations, reduced tills," Maxwell said. "And all of that is to cut down on the amount of fertilizers and herbicides we use, and also to make a more sound practice of growing food, fiber and fuel for the world."
"The goal is the same for everybody to have a high water quality coming into the streams into the rivers and everything else," Maxwell said. "So it is especially true with anything that we would put on the soils, such as fertilizers or herbicides."
Farmers using cover crops for the first time can get an additional $3 per acre, if they use a nitrogen inhibitor when applying a fall fertilizer.
Farmers can apply at any time for the program by contacting your local soil and water conservation offices. Click/tap here for Scott County's Soil and Water Conservation District's agriculture page.