Latest / The Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast / Episode 66 | Edge of Field Considerations: A Farmer Perspective
Transcript
- Edge of Field Considerations: A Farmer Perspective Todd Gleason 00:00:05:08 - 00:00:43:03 This is the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast, episode 66 Edge of Field Considerations: A Farmers Perspective. I’m University of Illinois Extension's Todd Gleason. Coming up, we'll hear a discussion I had with three farmers from the state of Illinois about the edge of field conservation practices they have put in place on some of their farms. I think it was an interesting discussion, and might be one that land owners and farmers alike can take some notes on as they think about improvements to their own properties over time. Todd Gleason 00:00:43:05 - 00:00:52:29 As is customary for me, I ask the farmers gathered for this edge of field conservation discussion to tell me a little bit about themselves and their farms. Brian Corkill 00:00:53:06 - 00:01:01:01 Yeah, my name is Brian Corkill, I'm live in southeastern Henry County in Illinois. I raise 900 acres. Corn, soybeans. Brent Fowler 00:01:01:03 - 00:01:06:05 I'm Brent Fowler. I farm with my family in southern McDonough County. Brent Fowler 00:01:06:05 - 00:01:09:09 Around 3500 acres of corn, soybeans, Jim Fulton 00:01:09:11 - 00:01:15:11 Jim Fulton, I farm in Livingston County by Solomon, I have 690 acres of corn and soybeans. Todd Gleason 00:01:15:14 - 00:01:25:05 Let's talk a little bit about the edge of field practices that you all deploy on your farms. They are different. Can we start with you, please? Brian Corkill 00:01:25:08 - 00:01:34:29 Yeah. So, I have several different edge of field practices. I have some filter strips, you know, obviously got waterways. Brian Corkill 00:01:35:02 - 00:01:42:20 And probably the most recent one I've, installed is a bioreactor. Brent Fowler 00:01:42:20 - 00:02:04:28 My primary, field of edge practice would be buffer strips. We have around 125 acres of prairie that we've put in, for wildlife habitat on field edges. That's our our main goal is to take, unprofitable acres out of production and, create wildlife habitat in. Jim Fulton 00:02:05:00 - 00:02:10:09 Well, my main, main structure is, constructed wetland. It's 4.5 acres. Todd Gleason 00:02:10:12 - 00:02:35:15 Those who are interested in constructed wetlands and to learn a great deal more about that can turn back into the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy podcast. And look for that title, and you'll find our conversation about this constructed wetland. Let's though start with the one area I think every farmer will be used to and probably have somewhere on their farm: a waterway. Todd Gleason 00:02:35:17 - 00:02:41:19 You say this is your edge of field practice. Tell me about that and what that really means. Brian Corkill 00:02:41:21 - 00:02:59:02 Well, I guess in our case, a lot of our waterways in they may be within field. They always tend to end up at the edge of the field. But it's it's a way that, number one, we can control, soil runoff, things like that. Brian Corkill 00:02:59:05 - 00:03:25:26 And again, it's usually in areas where we've had erosion issues, so maybe not the most profitable acres. And it also it helps out filter, filter out nutrients and things like that. And surface water runoff. So we've, put a focus on that over the last several years. And doing some of it on our own, and we've put in some waterways and redone some waterways through, conservation stewardship program. Brian Corkill 00:03:25:26 - 00:03:28:27 And we put in some CRP waterways as well. Todd Gleason 00:03:29:00 - 00:03:33:29 And I would guess that, 3500 acres, surely you have waterways that you deal with. Brent Fowler 00:03:33:29 - 00:03:43:11 Oh, sure. Sure we have. We have lots of waterways. And in fact, where we're kind of maybe going, we're probably going a little stronger on waterways than we thought we would have ten years ago. Brent Fowler 00:03:43:11 - 00:04:10:29 We've actually had a little bit of trouble with some of our interior dry dams. Not really holding up very well on really heavy rain events. So we've kind of got gotten away from interior terraces and gone to little more waterways. And one thing that we kind of do on our farm in particular is we we kind of do what we kind of call temporary waterways, where we and our and our bean stubble fields where we've had more tend to have more erosion than our cornstalk field. Brent Fowler 00:04:11:00 - 00:04:31:20 We we will go in and put a little temporary strip of triticale and some of the really highly erodible areas, and then just, that's just a temporary waterway that will then burn down with the rest of the field and go to our corn to. And we've kind of found that maybe these little temporary waterways are a little handier and lot cheaper than interior dams with riser pipes in front. Todd Gleason 00:04:31:26 - 00:04:56:26 So I will say, and maybe you can talk about the equipment you use as well, because most farmers will say, you know, waterways, they're fine, but they're a pain in the tukus in the middle of my field. You've got pretty large equipment that you're running across these fields. These fields. Has technology helped you out with that, or do you just live with the annoyance? Brent Fowler 00:04:56:29 - 00:05:17:02 Yeah. You know, I think technology definitely plays a part into us leaning towards waterways. You know, I think all of us. But there's nothing worse than breaking through a field of corn at night. And stumbling onto a dry, dry dam in the middle of the field. But with our waterways, we have automatic shut offs with our with our planters. Brent Fowler 00:05:17:05 - 00:05:35:02 And we we make interior boundaries that we can save from one year to the next. So when we come up to these waterways, we do it one time, and then in the future, every other time we plant that field, we just plant right through them and the planter automatically shuts off. That, that's definitely been, something that's been very helpful when it comes to waterways. Todd Gleason 00:05:35:07 - 00:05:44:26 And on your farm, you have the planting custom farm. They're using a 24 row planter. Do they have to run through waterways on yours and do they complain about it? Jim Fulton 00:05:44:26 - 00:05:56:13 Well, actually, the the, man that plants my, corn put my water way in. He just rebuilt it last year. So he has the guidance system and he has all that already in his system. Jim Fulton 00:05:56:15 - 00:06:05:13 And so same, same as with him. When he gets to the planter, it just turns off. And when he gets to it with a sprayer, it just turns off. And I don't think it's really an issue for him. Todd Gleason 00:06:05:20 - 00:06:18:16 And these are effective tools, cost effective tools. I think, also that your landlord's, land owners, sometimes don't mind, especially if they're, in CRP. Brian Corkill 00:06:18:18 - 00:06:44:24 Yeah. So we, we have CRP waterways, mostly on ground that we own, but, it can be a, you know, on farms that we rent, a lot of them at some point had some sort of waterways. Waterways were a lot popular back in the 70s, 80s. And then guys kind of as they transitioned to no till kind of started taking waterways out because, you know, I'm no tilling and I don't need to have that waterway. Brian Corkill 00:06:44:24 - 00:07:17:23 But we've found that we've been going back into those areas and putting waterways back in. So and and yeah, with the technology and everything, it, it really makes it pretty simple to work through those with things like one the sprayer like exact apply. And if as long as you have your interior boundaries and stuff like that, you know you can have a spray, you might be off, you know, because your boom, you got 120ft boom, so you're 60ft away from the waterway if you're trying to boundary a waterway and you might hang 1 or 2 nozzles out there and kill part of it. Brian Corkill 00:07:17:23 - 00:07:31:20 Well, now, some of the newer technology, you don't have to worry about that. And it makes it a lot more efficient. And, save a lot to save a lot of herbicide costs. Save a lot and seed costs with the planter shut offs and things like that, too. Todd Gleason 00:07:31:20 - 00:07:52:06 So, I wanted to start with waterways because I thought it was probably one of those practices that producers, farmers, landowners will be familiar with, potentially easy enough for them to implement a way to be involved with the CRP and in our case, would be involved in the process of helping to create these. Todd Gleason 00:07:52:08 - 00:08:10:11 Now, let's talk about some of the other practices that you're using on the edge of the field. You use some interesting things on the edge of the field as it's related to bioreactors and how you manage the flow of, tile out of the fields. Brian Corkill 00:08:10:13 - 00:08:15:28 Yeah. So we put in our first bioreactor here about four years ago. Brian Corkill 00:08:16:00 - 00:08:36:22 I serve on a committee for Illinois Farm Bureau, and that's where I started kind of learning about it. And, at that point in time, we were up to renew, CSP contract on a farm. And so that was one of the practices that we chose to do. So it happened to be on a part of a field that we had good tiled the year before. Brian Corkill 00:08:36:22 - 00:09:00:05 So we knew where all the tile was. Actually, that made it a lot simpler for the installation. So we break into the tile. It was a it was a submain. Broke into the tile. You dig a pit and the tile comes in, the pits lined with plastic tile comes in. There's a manifold to spread the water out through the width of the pit. Brian Corkill 00:09:00:08 - 00:09:20:15 Water flows through. It's filled with wood chips. The water flows through the wood chips. There's another manifold on the other end to pick the water back up. And then it goes into the tile. And this obviously on the edge of the field. So it goes into the into the neighbor's tile from that point. But then there's also they have a bypass that goes around it. Brian Corkill 00:09:20:15 - 00:09:42:29 So during the wet times of the year, you're not being bottled up on water flow. By having all that go through the bioreactor. It can bypass the excess flow around it. So you're not affecting on how your tile works. And there's also control structures. So right now our control structures have had to be set to a certain amount to satisfy CSP. Brian Corkill 00:09:43:02 - 00:10:00:00 And we're also pulling water samples on the inlet and the outlet side. But going forward, we'll be able to actually if we want to, we'll be able to raise and lower the the water level in the field with those control structures. So that's what I'm looking forward to when we can get to that point. Todd Gleason 00:10:00:00 - 00:10:09:06 Yeah. I was going to ask if you were looking forward to that point where you'll be able to use that, where to keep, more water, more moisture on the farm, correct? Brian Corkill 00:10:09:06 - 00:10:30:14 Yeah. So in the during the growing season, we can keep more water in the field and then, maybe even, you know, let water out ahead of harvest if we need to, again, keep water in the field during the winter time and then coming into spring, then we can let water out of the field so we can try to keep as much of that available water in the field when we need it. Todd Gleason 00:10:30:17 - 00:10:34:08 One, one last question. You like this enough that you're putting a second one in? Brian Corkill 00:10:34:08 - 00:11:07:06 That's correct. We're putting in another one this fall. And not doing it through any government program. I've gotten went out and searched out. So we've gotten a couple of grants that are going to cover the cost of that. And I don't know if we're going to I don't know that we're going to put in automatic water samplers on this one, but I think we are going to try to do some maybe, manual water sampling during different periods of the year just to, to measure the effectiveness of, of how it's working. Todd Gleason 00:11:07:06 - 00:11:30:18 So let's turn, to McDonough County, where you missed. This was an interesting story that you told to a conference in Galesburg. Bobwhite quail. And you just decided, I want bobwhite quail back. Your dad, who you still farm with, was not all that ecstatic about your decision, I take it. Brent Fowler 00:11:30:18 - 00:11:33:22 Yeah. You know, there's definitely been some pushback. Brent Fowler 00:11:33:25 - 00:11:53:14 But I'm overall, I'm pretty fortunate that he lets me try these different practices. But, yeah, you know, we went through a period there several years that we really weren't hearing or seeing any, any bobwhite. And so we kind of started off by, you know, first reducing mowing and then we then a few years later we put our first, prairie plot. Brent Fowler 00:11:53:14 - 00:12:21:09 And then, you know, we really started seeing the birds kind of recover. So, you know, I went back to dad and kind of and had to nudge him a little bit, but kind of got, talked into, you know, putting in another 100 acres and, and it's really, it's really helped, you know, and also from a financial standpoint, you know, we're taking some of these areas along the edge of the field where they're they're very, you know, highly eroded areas or really poor soil and, you know, or and not very handy to farm with large equipment. Brent Fowler 00:12:21:09 - 00:12:36:07 We can kind of straighten these fields up, maybe get rid of some of these little triangle patches out and, you know, so we can kind of, kill two birds with one stone. You know, we can kind of increase our profitability a little bit and create some really good wildlife habitat. Same time. Todd Gleason 00:12:36:10 - 00:12:40:11 Can you tell me about the economics of actually taking land out of production? Brent Fowler 00:12:40:16 - 00:13:04:02 Okay, yeah, the economics I have, I have a couple fields that just come to mind, you know, like we have we have one field that's an acre and a half triangle surrounded by trees with no good driveway. And, you know, we could, you know, that that field obviously doesn't yield very well. And, you know, we could put in a, $800 culvert to get into the into the field. Brent Fowler 00:13:04:04 - 00:13:22:10 So it's really to me, that one is a no brainer to put in the CRP. Dad, he would still farm that one and a half acre triangle with trees on the side with no driveway. You know, another field that comes to mind is, that's, it's a small field. It's got a great big, huge ditch that runs right through the middle of it. Brent Fowler 00:13:22:10 - 00:13:39:12 It's also like an acre and a half. And, you know, we could put a big dry dam or something on the, you know, in the middle to try or to try to stop that erosion. But, you know, really, it's just cost prohibitive to do something with such a small patch on such a poor yielding small field. Todd Gleason 00:13:39:14 - 00:13:42:21 Now let's talk about some of the things that you do on larger fields. Todd Gleason 00:13:42:29 - 00:14:05:07 I like the idea that you were discussing related to transitioning out of, a fence row or a hedgerow and what that meant from the trees to the field. I know farmers will understand that the closer you get to that hedgerow, if it still remains, the tougher it is to get a yield out of a crop. Yeah, sure. Brent Fowler 00:14:05:07 - 00:14:20:19 You know, you know, farming right up next to really tall trees, whether it be a timber edge or what, what have you. It's. I think all of us farmers know that corn and soybeans don't grow well, right up next really large trees. You know, it's like 30ft where the tree roots go out and suck all the moisture out. Brent Fowler 00:14:20:20 - 00:14:43:15 You also have some, you know, damage from animals, but, yeah. So those areas, it really seems like a no brainer at times to put in a small, a small buffer. And you can create a little bit of habitat in the there, you know, so make a softer transition from tall trees to rural crops, you know, might be what I try to do on our farms. Brent Fowler 00:14:43:15 - 00:14:48:14 We have tall trees, maybe have some shrubs and then some prairie and then row crops. Todd Gleason 00:14:48:17 - 00:14:50:01 How big of a space is that? Brent Fowler 00:14:50:06 - 00:15:09:26 It kind depends on how good the soil is, how erodible that strip is, and what we need to do to kind of straighten up field edge. But on our CRP programs, the the programs 30 to 120ft, you get to pick in on a CRP and it does not have to be a constant distance the whole way. Brent Fowler 00:15:09:26 - 00:15:28:03 In other words, you know, if you need a 30ft wide and then and you come to where the timber edge moves further away from the field, you go 120ft and you kind of straighten that field up. So you kind of look at how, how good the soil is, how routable it is, and what you need to do to make farming more efficient. Todd Gleason 00:15:28:08 - 00:15:30:26 What do you think you're getting out of that deal? Brent Fowler 00:15:30:28 - 00:15:56:15 I mean, I'm not really sure I'm really getting a lot out of that, but we're not losing money on that strip of crop that's failing often. So, you know, the the rental payment on CRP, some of our other programs, you know, we were, you know, getting up to around 200, $250 an acre, which is obviously more than what I would want to pay rent on some of these really poor yielding areas right up next to trees. Todd Gleason 00:15:56:17 - 00:16:33:10 Now let's turn our attention to the big dog at the, edge of the field. And by Big Dog, this just takes up a lot of space. What was it about this area that caused you to say, hey, I think I might want to put in a large, piece of property here. Improvement. Which may not look like an improvement, frankly, that will help to absorb a lot of the nutrients, that are running off out of the watershed for this particular field. Jim Fulton 00:16:33:12 - 00:16:59:07 Well, I was there that I'm on the the Vermilion Headwaters steering Committee, and I was at a meeting and the wetland initiative ladies came and did a presentation. And I'd always been interested in a pond like structure. And our family's always been interested in conservation and wildlife habitat. And, I thought, well, maybe this would be a fit for us. Jim Fulton 00:16:59:07 - 00:17:26:14 So they came and they did a survey of our property, and they told me a couple of sites where this would work, and we decided to go ahead and do it. And, so we're treating 78 acres of land with this constructed wetland. It's 1.1 acre of wetland, and then there's 3.6 or 3.5 acres of, pollinator habitat. Jim Fulton 00:17:26:14 - 00:17:51:13 Around it as a buffer. And, my neighbor pattern tiled his field. So we have three water control structures. One of them is in his main, which flows through my field to the creek to drain. And the other is in my waterway that goes in the inlet of the wetland. And then there's another water control structure at the outlet by the creek. Todd Gleason 00:17:51:16 - 00:18:12:23 Yeah. So the way these work is that the water flows in from the tile to the wetland, it seeps through the wetland. And then there's a secondary structure that allows that to go into the creek. And simply the wetland manages the water by keeping it in place for a longer period. Is it wet, year round? Jim Fulton 00:18:12:23 - 00:18:14:11 Pretty much. Jim Fulton 00:18:14:14 - 00:18:31:24 It's designed to have about a maximum of 18in of water in it. I was there yesterday. There's four deep zones that are about three foot deep, and, they all have water in them right now. And the bottom is just muddy. Jim Fulton 00:18:31:27 - 00:18:41:18 Constructing the wetland is just one part of it. You also have to have, the plants put in place to manage some of this flow. Todd Gleason 00:18:41:20 - 00:18:50:10 And they have to actually be put in place. How long is your wetland been? There. And did the plants come as you expected? Jim Fulton 00:18:50:10 - 00:19:08:28 It was constructed in 2018. They put the, started putting the pollinator habitat in. And in the fall of 2018, they came in the spring of 2019 and put plugs of water plants in the bottom of the wetland at that time. Jim Fulton 00:19:09:00 - 00:19:22:29 And, it's completely filled in now. We're still having some issues with the pollinator habitat, but they're going to I think we're going to do a burn this fall and then reseed it in the fall. And that should take care of that, I think. Todd Gleason 00:19:23:02 - 00:19:27:14 Finally, and I'll let each of you think of this for just a moment. Todd Gleason 00:19:27:17 - 00:19:46:13 But I'm going to start here. I want to know what it is that you haven't done or that you've heard about, that you thought maybe I should try that one. What's in your conservation list or wish list? And what would cause you to go ahead and move forward with it? Jim Fulton 00:19:46:16 - 00:19:52:06 All right, now, from what I've was talked about today, I'm thinking about maybe a saturated buffer. Jim Fulton 00:19:52:06 - 00:20:05:21 I have two filler strips that are a border, Five Mile Creek, and I think that might be a possibility of something that we could do to help reduce the, nitrate levels in the streams. Brent Fowler 00:20:05:23 - 00:20:13:24 Yeah, yeah, I was actually thinking the same thing of this, little forum we did this morning. I was just. I was just thinking. Brent Fowler 00:20:13:24 - 00:20:38:04 I was trying to think in my head. I think we have a few places also that we could, you know, existing tile next to us, smaller size stream. I think we have a I think we could make that work. The other thing is, I've. I've wanted for a few years to put in a wetland and, so I'd like to, I'd like to put one of those and also contact the Illinois Land Improvement Contractors Association. Brian Corkill 00:20:38:07 - 00:21:00:04 So I guess my, thing is I've been thinking about this, but more today, and I've actually talked to some of the people here that had, tables set up. I'm, I'm kind of thinking about looking into putting in a, constructed wetland. We've got a, a farm where we have a little area that has CRP around it, where it's actually where, it's called Indian Creek. Brian Corkill 00:21:00:04 - 00:21:15:28 It's where Indian Creek starts, which ends up flowing into the Spooner River, which ends up flowing into the Mississippi. So I think it looks like it might be a good spot where we could put in a constructed wetland there. So that's something I'm going to investigate further. Todd Gleason 00:21:16:01 - 00:21:24:06 Okay. I said that was the final question, but I really do want to know, since all three of you have the idea that constructed Todd Gleason 00:21:24:06 - 00:21:44:12 Wetlands are something you want and or have implemented. Why? It just seems like a big cost. And I want to know what it is from your perspective, what it is that you've want from it or why. And it might be economic, it may be something entirely different. Jim Fulton 00:21:44:14 - 00:21:57:11 Well, I was raised, thinking that we are stewards of our land and that, we should do something to make it better when we were gone than it was while we were here. Jim Fulton 00:21:57:11 - 00:22:14:07 And so I'm thinking that that is something that will benefit my grandkids down in the future. In the future is to have cleaner water. And and, it's nice to see the, the butterflies and the deer and the birds and everything have a place to live. Brent Fowler 00:22:14:10 - 00:22:23:04 I guess my main reason is, my wife and I like ducks, and it would be fun to see what habitat we'd get to come to. Brian Corkill 00:22:23:04 - 00:22:26:07 Along the same lines again. Brian Corkill 00:22:26:09 - 00:22:47:11 Us being stewards of the land that we take care of. And, I'm going to be the last generation in my family to farm our family farm. So it maybe isn't going to necessarily benefit any of my family members down the road, but it's, more of a, benefit to mankind in general. Clean water is important. Brian Corkill 00:22:47:11 - 00:23:00:06 And, my time and being involved with Illinois Farm Bureau and nutrient loss reduction strategy and things like that, it's just another practice that we can do to try to help move that needle and take care of some of those things. Todd Gleason 00:23:00:12 - 00:23:08:29 You've been listening to episode 66 of the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction podcast, Edge of Field Considerations: Farmers Perspective. Todd Gleason 00:23:09:02 - 00:23:21:20 This program is a production of University of Illinois Extension in conjunction with Rachel Curry, Nicole Haverback and Emma Eldridge. I'm Todd Gleason.