Dairy farms have a large impact within the Pipe Creek subwatershed. Increasing dairy cattle numbers has resulted in a greater reliance on corn silage to sustain expanding dairy operations. The change in cropping practices has resulted in less plant residue left on the fields to hold soil in place during late fall and spring runoff events. The impacts of reduced crop residue on water quality are compounded when factoring in manure management. The increased cattle numbers also lead to increased manure and the need for producers to apply manure to cropland in both fall and spring. This manure is often incorporated, which means additional tillage passes and less residue on the surface to protect and hold soil in place.
Agriculture is an important part of our heritage, identify, and economy in the Fox-Wolf Basin, and land use reflects this. Agriculture conservation practices have major benefits for both the farm, through improved soil health, and our waters, by reducing nutrient and sediment pollution that enters the lakes and rivers. To increase adoption of soil health practices among farmers in the watershed, Farmer Champions work with conservation staff to overcome the perceived hurdles of consistent implementation for the long-term. They then showcase these practices and share lessons learned with other farmers.
In the Pipe Creek Watershed (Fond du Lac County), Dave Simon and Chad Tasch are serving as Farmer Champions. Their successful implementation of soil health practices on 450 acres is expected to result in a reduction of 1,314 lbs. of phosphorus to Lake Winnebago, the Lower Fox River and Green Bay.
Dave Simon of Prairie Rock Farms
Dave is a cash-grain operator in the town of Johnsburg. Dave raises corn, soybeans, wheat, rye, alfalfa, and beef cattle. Some of his corn is taken for grain, and a portion is taken as silage for local dairy farmers, in which Dave receives manure in return. Dave started incorporating no-till and cover crops in 2014, when he planted rye for silage for a local dairy. Dave was intrigued when he saw the tonnage from the rye, the optimal no-till planting conditions following rye harvest, and the yields he saw from his corn that fall. Since then, Dave has further incorporated other practices, such as summer cover crops following small grain harvest, in order to produce nitrogen for the next growing season.
Chad Tasch of Tasch’s Custom, LLC
Chad Tasch is the owner of Tasch’s Custom LLC, an agriculture business which provides forage harvesting, combining, planting, baling, manure handling, and trucking services to local farms. In addition to this business, Chad is also a cash-grain grower who works closely with a local dairy in the Pipe Creek watershed. Chad has been in farming for over 30 years. Due to changing weather patterns, he has been forced to start integrating more conservation practices such as no-till and cover crops. The Pipe Creek watershed has a lot of heavy clays soil which retain water well, making it difficult both to keep soils from getting compacted, as well providing optimal timing to establish cover crops in the fall. This, along with management issue of applying manure, is what the GLRI grant is aimed at solving.
Keeping both soil and nutrients in place is both beneficial to the farmers and the ecology of the watershed, as Lake Winnebago in within close proximity to the fields within the grant. Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous are prone to running off from fields and into waterways which drain into Lake Winnebago. Practices such as no-till and low disturbance manure injection limit the amount of soil disturbance to keep the structure in place and manure in the soil profile. Cover crops help hold the soil in place both through top growth, as well as through their vigorous root structures.
For information about soil health cost-share in Fond du Lac County, contact: Zach Laughlin, Fond du Lac County Land and Water Conservation Department, zach.laughlin@fdlco.wi.gov
Questions? Contact us:
Climate Smart Agriculture Project Manager: Katie Woodrow, 920.915.5767 or katie@fwwa.org
To receive periodic updates on these projects as well as many others, please subscribe to our newsletters: CLICK HERE
