Southwest Minnesota Wellhead Soil Health

This grant opportunity would increase practices that are associated with groundwater quality and increasing soil health and nutrient management for producers with row crop operations within Drinking Water Supply Management Areas within four Southwest Minnesota counties. A soil health assessment will be conducted to gain insight on the current operation of the farmer, then a strategy can be created to move the farmer toward soil health goals they would like to achieve. Proposed non-structural practices for soil health and reduction of NO3-N leaching to groundwater are cover crops, strip-till/no-till, conservation crop rotation, and split application of N fertilizer with use of precision agriculture to prescribe N rates. In creating this strategy, a farmer can elect to choose from the suite of practices laid out in this application for the life of the contract with guidance from the SWCD. Cover crop incentive of $40 per acre per year installed, strip-till/no-till incentive of $30 per acre annually utilized, conservation crop rotation $100 for additional species in rotation with a one-time payment for a three year contract, and split application for N management at $20 per acre and precision agriculture for N rate prescription at $30 per acre per year utilized. The split application and precision agriculture practice as well as conservation crop rotation practice will be in conjunction with cover crops and/or strip-till/no-till practices in this application as they are not as directly associated with increasing soil health but more directly considered management of the primary pollutant. It is anticipated this project will include 2175 acres with a combination of practices averaging $130.