Soil Health

Soil is a living and life-giving substance, without which we would perish.  As world population and food production demands rise, keeping our soil healthy and productive is of paramount importance. So much so that we believe improving the health of our Nation’s soil is one of the most important endeavors of our time.

By focusing more attention on soil health and by educating our customers and the public about the positive impact healthy soils can have on productivity and conservation, we can help our Nation’s farmers and ranchers feed the world more profitably and sustainably – now and for generations to come.

Conservation happens on individual farms.  Each farm has different characteristics, making it necessary to create an individualized conservation plan.  The Lake County SWCD works closely with the NRCS to create these plans. However, there are four cornerstones that work together to create healthy soil.  These cornerstones are minimizing soil disturbance, keeping the soil covered, keeping plants living on the soil as much as possible, and increasing biodiversity.  Learn more about soil health with the NRCS Unlock the Secrets of the Soil campaign at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/soils/health/

Cover Crops

Cover crops are an effective tool to reduce soil erosion and increase nutrient recycling to farmlands, thereby also decreasing the soil and nutrient loads entering ditches and waterways, trapping nitrogen that would otherwise leach away. Cover crops can have numerous other benefits, including the improvement of soil quality by building soil organic matter, weed control, pest management, fertility management, water availability, and agricultural landscape diversification.

Lake County Soil & Water Conservation District offered producers two cover crop cost shared programs:

• Indiana State Department of Agriculture/Clean Water Indiana
• Lake County Surveyor’s Office/MS4 Stormwater Quality Program

Agreements offered the producers $20 per acre on a maximum of 50 acres, $1000 cap/year to offset the cost of planting an approved cover crop. Over 1,200 acres of  cover crops planted in 2015 were responsible for the    following nutrient reductions to water bodies:

• • 1,114 fewer tons of sediment (over 101 dump trucks)
• 1,599 fewer pounds of phosphorus (prevented 800 thousand pounds of algae from growing on surface water
• 3,192 fewer pounds of nitrogen (38 million gallons of water could have been contaminated)

This is to improve the water quality of Lake County.

These conservation measures will provide stabilization of the surrounding agricultural land to minimize sediment and nutrient loading into the watershed.

InField Advantage (INFA)

New for 2015, the Lake County Soil & Water Conservation District worked with four producers to improve their nitrogen use efficiency in corn. Our local group is part of the state-wide program coordinated by the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. This program tests the nitrate levels in cornstalks and offers farmers an in-depth report to help them manage their nitrogen applications more effectively. Best management practices such as these help to maintain soil health and water quality.

INFA uses aerial imagery and the Corn Stalk Nitrate Test (CSNT) to determine nitrogen use efficiency in each field enrolled. Producers are not restricted on tillage, rotation, nitrogen form, timing or rate and may enroll multiple fields. At the end of the year, INFA supplies each grower with the imagery and CSNT results from each field.

Our  2015 working group consisted of 8 guided stalk sampling fields. INFA costs are funded through Indiana Corn Marketing Council/Indiana Soybean Alliance checkoff funds and is offered free of charge to producers. The total value of the imagery and lab work to our producers in 2015 was $2,208.00.