The percentage of Iowa farmers with some knowledge of the state's nutrient reduction strategy appears to have increased over the past decade, while the percentage who support adopting more conservation practices declined.
The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy aims to reduce annual nitrogen and phosphorus loss by 45%, largely through widespread adoption of conservation practices, like cover crops, on farms.
As part of the Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll, researchers at Iowa State University sent the same set of questions to Iowa farmers in the spring of 2014 and 2024 to learn more about their perspectives. Among the findings, nearly 90% of farmers reported some knowledge of the state’s strategy. This marked a 10 percentage point increase from 2014.
But the majority who said farmers should do more to reduce nutrient and sediment runoff dropped from 84% to 74%. Concerns about agriculture’s impact on water quality also decreased from 76% to 70%.
“That was surprising to me,” said J. Arbuckle, professor and extension sociologist at ISU. “One thing, though, to keep in mind is this survey went out in the spring 2024. We’ve had a lot of recent attention on water quality, particularly the impacts on human health over the summer.”
Much of the Des Moines metro was under its first lawn watering ban earlier this year due to elevated nitrate levels in the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers.
It’s possible the farmers’ responses would have been higher if they had received the survey questions this summer, Arbuckle said. The timing of the 2024 survey also coincided with the end of a four-year drought. Nitrate levels in rivers tend to be lower during dry periods.
Other findings in the report include a 72% to 63% decrease in respondents saying they would like to improve conservation practices on the land they farm to help meet the Nutrient Reduction Strategy’s goals.
Half of the 2024 respondents agreed nutrients from Iowa farms contribute to the hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico, which is consistent with the 2014 results. But those who said they were uncertain jumped from 23% to 44%.
Perceived barriers to conservation were similar across the two surveys.
“Economic conditions, particularly now, are not very good in agriculture for farmers. So, that remains a major impediment, and a lot feel that landlords are unwilling to spend money on conservation,” Arbuckle said.
According to latest Census of Agriculture, 65% of farmland in Iowa is under a lease and nearly 80% of leased acres are owned by people who do not farm. This includes people who have retired from farming, heirs and out-of-state landowners.
“We’re going to have to figure out some new strategies because we’re not moving as fast as we need to.”J. Arbuckle, ISU professor of rural sociology
Another study published this summer indicates many farmers abandon cover crops and no-till conservation practices over time. Arbuckle contributed to the research, which used survey data from more than 3,200 Iowa farmers between 2015 and 2019.
Among the findings, nearly 20% of the respondents who used cover crops one year stopped using them by the next year. Around 13% of no-till adopters also discontinued the practice after one year.
The rate of farmers abandoning these conservation practices was lower in areas with greater erosion issues, like the Loess Hills in the Missouri-Nishnabotna Watershed.
One of the researcher's recommendations is longer-term financial incentives to continue using cover crops and no-till practices.
“The most important finding from both the farm poll and other research on cover crops and no-till … is that we, as an agricultural community, just really have to up our game and help support farmers,” Arbuckle said. “We’re going to have to figure out some new strategies because we’re not moving as fast as we need to.”
