(KIWA Staff Photo)Iowa (RI) — Three northern Iowa farmers have formed a nonprofit to spread the message that cover crops and buffer strips along waterways are essential to improving Iowa’s water quality.
They call themselves “The Lobe Rangers” because all three farm in the Des Moines Lobe, an area known for some of Iowa’s most fertile soils.
Zach Smith, a fifth-generation farmer from Lake Mills, says the state’s voluntary approach to preventing soil and nutrient runoff from farmland — the “Nutrient Reduction Strategy” state officials released in 2013 — isn’t producing the results he hoped for.
Matt Borman, a fifth-generation farmer from Algona, says voluntary conservation isn’t delivering the statewide water-quality improvements farmers and communities need.
The group launched a series of videos in March. All three farmers plant cover crops to hold soil through winter and use targeted fertilizer placement during the growing season. They say their yields are equal to — or better than — what they saw before adopting those practices.
James Hepp, a first-generation farmer from Rockwell City, says farmers don’t have to figure out conservation alone.
Smith says farmers respond to policy incentives — and because federal subsidies support crop insurance, corn and soybeans dominate Iowa’s landscape.
The three farmers discussed their work on this weekend’s edition of “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS. The Lobe Rangers are scheduled to speak Monday night at an event hosted by the Iowa Environmental Council and Des Moines Water Works.
