Six teams of farmers and farm advisors in the Midwest are demonstrating their leadership in conservation agriculture with the completion of their Good Idea Mini-grant projects, a program run by a multi-state collaboration of Land Grant University Extension staff. Each grantee team installed an edge-of-field conservation practice on the farmer’s land to reduce nutrient and sediment runoff to local rivers and streams and, ultimately, the Mississippi River, as well as produced a video or podcast to help other farmers learn about what they did.

Their videos and podcasts are now available, so farmers across the region can gain ideas and advice on how they too could implement edge-of-field practices on their operations to be part of the solution to improving water quality in the Mississippi River Basin and beyond.

Edge-of-field practices are on-farm solutions farmers can use to reduce nutrient and sediment runoff at the edges of their farm fields. They include a variety of measures, such as buffer strips, bioreactors, and constructed wetlands.

Often installed on marginal, under-performing acres, edge-of-field practices slow and filter below- and above-ground runoff. Not only do they help improve water quality, but many of these practices can also enhance wildlife habitat and help manage floodwater.

By awarding these teams funding to install these practices and share their experiences with other farmers, the ultimate goal of the Good Idea Mini-grant program is to empower more farmers to adopt soil and water conservation practices.

“The power of farmer-to-farmer learning can’t be understated. Farmers want to know how other farmers are solving problems such as erosion and nutrient loss on their operations, and they want to see the proof of what is working or not working,” said Jenny Seifert, Watershed Outreach Specialist at University of Wisconsin–Madison Extension’s Natural Resources Institute, who co-led the Good Idea Mini-grant program. “We hope these teams’ stories will inspire other farmers to consider how edge-of-field practices can be part of their farming system.”

The grantee teams pursued a variety of edge-of-field practices with their funding, all dependent on what made sense for the farmer’s individual operation.

Darren Yanke, a cattle producer in Sauk County, Wisconsin who owns and operates Echo-Y Farms, partnered with the nonprofit Sand County Foundation to install a prairie buffer strip along a creek that runs through one of his farm fields.

“Maintaining edge-of-field buffers is critical for ensuring the health of our waterways and fostering environments that attract beneficial insects,” said Yanke, who helped found the Sauk Soil & Water Improvement Group, a producer-led watershed group. “Our aspiration is that other farms recognize the advantages of edge-of-field buffers and integrate them where it makes sense on their operation.”  

A farming family in Wisconsin, the Oehmichens, who also own Short Lane Ag Supply, partnered with Marathon County and Pheasants Forever to transform marginal acres and a sea of reed canary grass into a trio of filter strips – a perennial hay harvestable buffer, a pollinator strip, and a wildlife enhancement strip. All partners on this team are involved in the Eau Pleine Partnership for Integrated Agriculture, one of the state’s producer-led watershed groups.

“I think almost every farmer has areas of the field that aren’t overly productive or hard to farm,” said Larry Oehmichen. “I think it’s important for every farmer to take a look at their fields and see if they can turn it into something that isn’t just for cropping but also for the environment and the wildlife.”

Brian Corkill, a corn and soybean farmer in Illinois, installed a second bioreactor on his operation with partners from University of Illinois Extension and the Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership. Bioreactors are trenches filled with woodchips placed at the edge of farm fields to reduce nitrates from tile drainage water.

Since Corkill had experience with one bioreactor and has seen the results, he said he already understood the value of the practice.

“We, as farmers, may own ground, but in reality, we’re just caretakers for a short period of time. We need to do whatever is best, given our knowledge at any point in history, to make things better than when we took over as caretakers,” said Corkill.

Minnesota sheep producer Heidi Eger worked with independent farm advisor Jim Paulson to thin a wooded buffer along a gully, utilizing her sheep to help manage the vegetation through grazing and encourage the regrowth of soil-stabilizing grass to prevent erosion.

“The mini-grant gave me an opportunity to try out a small, low-cost intervention that should have huge dividends for water quality,” said Eger, who hopes her project will inspire other farmers to try out small interventions, too.

The other completed projects include a field border on landowner Dennis Ireland’s farmland and a grassed buffer strip on Dennis Mitchell’s farm; both are in Wisconsin and partnered with Wisconsin Farmers Union. A seventh awarded project, an automated drainage water management system on landowner Kent Bohnhoff’s farmland in Illinois, will be completed in May.

Corkill, the Illinois farmer who installed a bioreactor, hopes his project demonstrates to other farmers that edge-of-field practices are not difficult to do and can make a difference.

“You’re not on an island by yourself. There are people out there that can help you on these projects. And, maybe as a single project, it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it can be part of a greater thing that can actually make an impact,” said Corkill.

The Good Idea Mini-grant program is part of One Good Idea, an online farmer-to-farmer learning platform. It is primarily a clearinghouse of crowdsourced videos and podcasts featuring farmers sharing their experiences implementing soil and water conservation practices – ranging from cover crops to no-till to edge-of-field practices.

One Good Idea also hosts a virtual meet-up series for farmers, called Good Idea Shop Talks, where they can troubleshoot challenges or questions related to conservation practice implementation through peer-to-peer conversation.

One Good Idea is a collaborative effort between Land Grant University Extension and farmers in the Mississippi River Basin and beyond. The project team leading the mini-grant program and meet-up series represent University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension, University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension, and Mississippi State University Extension. A team of farmer advisors is also involved. Both the Good Idea Mini-grant program and Good Idea Shop Talks are funded by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) and the Walton Family Foundation through the Achieving Conservation Through Targeted Information, Outreach & Networking (ACTION) Program. One Good Idea was originally developed with funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.