Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig recently announced that the United State Department of Agriculture will expand a successful Water Quality Initiative (WQI) into five more counties, including Guthrie County.

Taylor and Page Counties have been the testing grounds for the project that shows the compatibility between cattle and conservation since 2016, and have shown great success in presenting creative opportunities and advance conservation based cropping systems. In this program, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship will work with farmers and landowners to identify opportunities for forage-based crops where row crops are less profitable.

The Iowa Water Quality Initiative was established in 2013 to implement the Nutrient Reduction Strategy, a science and technology based approach to protecting and improving water quality for Iowans. It brings together sources like municipal wastewater treatment plants and industrial facilities, along with farm fields and urban stormwater runoff to address water quality issues, and seeks to harness the ability of private and public resources to deliver messages to stakeholders to reduce nutrient loss and improve water quality.

Guthrie County, along with Carroll, Cherokee, Ida and Woodbury Counties will all start the WQI, with the first phase to have initial cost to be approximately $465,000, and should last through 2025. Each county’s Soil and Water Conservation District, the Cherokee and Carroll County Cattlemen, Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, Iowa Beef Industry Council and Iowa State University will be additional partners for the initiative.