Several producers gathered in early February for an informal field day on Jim and Lisa French’s farm to explore watering options for cropland.
One of the keys to improving the health of our soil is to incorporate livestock into the landscape on our crop acres. Livestock facilitate the cycling of nutrients back into the soil to become available for the next crop. Many times, the lack of fence and water facilities limit our ability to incorporate livestock efficiently. The advent of poly wire and step-in posts has become a solution to the fence issue but often water is only available by hauling it to the field location. Hauling water can consume a large part of livestock producer’s day and soon becomes a disincentive to developing grazing in multiple locations.
With that in mind, we will soon be announcing a new opportunity to incentivize soil health practices along with cost share for watering systems in regenerative crop fields. This program will be first and foremost a soil health program, not a livestock feeding program. As I said at the beginning, livestock are an important part of any regenerative agriculture system but livestock above the ground must work in tandem with livestock below the surface - the soil bugs and organisms. Throughout the grazing season, the producer must maintain at least 80 percent ground cover to protect the soil.
For this program, there will be four required practices that can earn the producer varying amounts of incentive payments. Those practices are no-till, cover crops, crop rotation and prescribed grazing. Prescribed grazing has not been widely used in cropland before, but producers can earn incentive payments by following the guidelines much like in a range setting.
After those four practices are in place, cost share for livestock water systems becomes available. Livestock water practices can include a well, pump, tank and/or pipeline. Producers are encouraged to think creatively and design water systems that minimize inconvenience with planting and spraying operations such as portable water sites, multiple hook up points on above- or underground pipe.
We expect to have a formal announcement soon regarding this opportunity that will be available within the Cheney Watershed. In the meantime, we encourage you to contact Lisa French 620-200-0172 or Howard Miller 620-727-6546 at the Cheney Lake Watershed office to indicate your interest and begin some initial planning. Let’s all work together for soils in the Cheney Lake Watershed. - Howard Miller