It took less than 5 business days for all $1.4 million in cost share funds to be used up by farmers around the state. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey announced on July 24 that the funds made available to help farmers install new nutrient reduction practices have been used up
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship awarded 597 farmers the cost shares to cover 59,883 acres. Of that, 54,679 is for cover crops acres, 2,531 acres used for nitrification inhibitor, 1,656 acres for no-till, and 1,015 for strip-till acres.
The funds awarded are down from last year, where over 1,000 farmers signed up a 100,000 acres in under two weeks for $2.8 million.
Troy Hendrickson
Farmers get paid to do the right thing, ordinary citizens get punished if they don’t.