For the third year in a row, the Iowa Pork Producers Association (IPPA) has chosen to partner with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) to offer funding for pig farmers interested in implementing new nutrient loss reduction technologies.
IPPA has provided $25,000 to IDALS to help offset up to 50 percent of the costs for pig farmers to install saturated buffers or bioreactors on their farm land. Preference is given to sites that provide the greatest opportunity for nitrate reduction and will be geographically dispersed throughout the state to aid in education and demonstration opportunities.
“This additional $25,000 investment by the Iowa Pork Producers Association will help support our efforts to scale-up the adoption of these edge-of-field practices focused on improving water quality. Both bioreactors and saturated buffers are still fairly new practices. This investment will help us continue to place these practices throughout the state to show farmers how they might fit in their operation,” said Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. “Thank you to the Iowa Pork Producers Association for continuing to invest in water quality efforts in our state.”
“IPPA is very pleased to continue this successful partnership with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. We know public/private partnerships such as this continue to drive momentum of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy,” said IPPA President Gregg Hora, a pig farmer from Fort Dodge. “This brings IPPA’s support of these efforts to $75,000.”
This is the third year of funding committed by IPPA. Past funding has assisted in completing 11 projects, with an additional 10 projects under development. These efforts help remove nitrogen from water before it reaches our creeks, streams and rivers. “This is how we keep moving the needle on improving Iowa’s water quality,” Hora said.
Bioreactors are excavated pits filled with woodchips, with tile drainage water flowing through the woodchips. As water from the tile line passes into the bioreactor, denitrifying bacteria converts nitrate into di-nitrogen gas.
Saturated buffers divert water flowing through underground tile lines into buffers along a river or stream, aiding nutrient removal before the water enters the waterway.