Ag Secretary Announces Federal Money to Reduce Iowa Soil Erosion

By Mark Moran

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced two federal grants aimed at helping farmers reduce soil erosion in Iowa and other Midwest states.

In addition to benefiting the land, farmers could see another revenue stream from adding a crop which has not been profitable in the past.

Jacqueline Comito, research manager for Iowa Learning Farms, said the state will get $540,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to experiment with what is known as relay intercropping, and plant a rye or cereal crop rather than grasses, which means an additional revenue stream.

"Having something green out there in the months when nothing is growing," Comito explained. "Getting something out there with roots in the ground making Iowa a little greener longer is really important environmentally for so many reasons. And so this particular practice is important because it's suddenly making that cover crop into a cash crop. "

In addition to creating an additional revenue source, Comito pointed out researchers hope relay intercropping is successful enough to have it listed in Iowa's official soil nutrient reduction strategy, a sort of master plan for protecting the state's soil from erosion.