Farmers are stewards of the environment, protecting topsoil and maintaining water quality for future generations. Their success is important to everyone. Iowa’s farmers need high-quality, productive land to support their families, and the global community needs successful farmers to provide its food.
To preserve the balance between farming and land preservation, farmers look for and use methods of crop and livestock production that maintain economic and social stability while sustaining the productivity and quality of Iowa’s land. As we learn more about the environment, each generation of farmers is able to improve environmental stewardship practices even further.
For example, Iowa’s corn growers are working with local citizens groups and state and federal government agencies to develop farming techniques that will ensure a safe water supply.
These farming techniques, known as Best Management Practices (BMPs) are voluntary measures that farmers adopt to protect and preserve land and water quality. Use of BMPs is based on individual farming operations. Implementing any one practice will improve a farmer’s efficiency and contribute to a cleaner environment for Iowa. Many farmers adopt more than one of the following BMPs:
- Nutrient Management – applying fertilizer more precisely to ensure the most efficient yields, cut down on wasted fertilizer and protect water quality.
- Contour Farming, Buffer Strips, Terracing – reducing soil erosion and nutrient and pesticide runoff. Buffer strips and terraces also provide additional food and shelter for wildlife.
- Filter Strips – planting
grass or other vegetation to reduce soil erosion and minimize fertilizer
and pesticide runoff into waterways. Like buffer strips and terraces,
filter strips enhance wildlife habitat.
- Conservation Tillage – conservation tillage systems like no-till cut down the number of times farmers disturb the soil. Leaving more plant residue undisturbed on the surface reduces surface water runoff and soil erosion. Less frequent tillage also reduces the amount of energy farmers need to run tractors, which saves resources.
Over several decades, U.S. farmers have increased corn production 130% and boosted corn exports 350%. Growers accomplished this at the same time they improved practices to use less land and increase environment protection. As a result, today, one farmer produces enough food to feed more than 100 people around the world while serving a a steward of the environment. Some of the achievements by Iowa farmers include:
- Iowa ranks second in the nation
in restoration of wetlands and first in the installation of conservation
buffer strips. Growers have restored more than 115,000 acres and
installed almost 400,000 acres of conservation buffers. In a single
Iowa county like Carroll, this can mean over a thousand miles of
grass waterways, filter strips and contour buffers to improve water
quality and reduce runoff.
- Nitrogen application has been dropping
in Iowa as advanced technology allows growers to more closely
match the nutrients they apply to what each crop needs. In 2002,
Iowa's application rate averaged 122 pounds per acre, the second
lowest rate in the Midwest.
- Unlike some countries, where food needs lead to the cutting of forests and natural areas to clear new cropland, Iowa farmers have increased production without plowing more land. In 2004, Iowa's corn growers produced more than three times more corn per acre than they did in the 1954.