CAMAR, Iowa — As the nation’s only junior college to have a dairy robotics barn and specialized two-year degree program in that area of dairy science, Northeast Iowa Community College in Calmar is also becoming the first to adopt 100 percent no-till cover crop practices on all of the cropland it uses to feed its 120-head dairy herd. “We want to be good neighbors,” said Liang Chee Wee, NICC president, last month. “We don’t just talk, we do.”

As part of the Central Turkey River Nutrient Reduction Demonstration Project (CTRNRD) unveiled last July, the new project is a collaboration among NICC, Iowa’s Dairy Center and the Northeast Iowa Community-Based Dairy Foundation, which has a farm south of NICC’s campus to educate students and the public regarding improving water quality.

Funded by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship’s Water Quality Initiative Program, the three-year project is being led by the Winneshiek County Soil and Water Conservation District. Consisting of 75,000 acres and 400 landowners, the new project’s demonstration area will work with Iowa farmers and landowners in Burr Oak, Wonder, Rogers and Brockamp Creek watersheds.

These are sub-watersheds of the Turkey River, located mainly in Winneshiek County with small portions in Fayette and Chickasaw counties, according to Michelle Elliott, CTRNRD project coordinator.

The project’s goal is to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus to these streams. In addition, the 100 percent no-till cover on NICC’s Iowa’s Dairy Center’s 180 tillable acres will improve nutrient management, said Dave Lawstuen, NICC chair of dairy operations.

“NICC and the Dairy Foundation board want this center to be here for education of students, producers and the general public,” he said. “We want to extend that philosophy from the Dairy Center to the cropland. We have to feed our cows and handle the manure as well.”

Dan Mohn, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) technician, said two wetlands, a rain garden, a sediment basin and a monoslope cattle building will be constructed. “All of these practices will reduce nutrient runoff to streams, which is the goal of Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy,” he said.

Todd Duncan, NRCS district conservationist in Winneshiek County, said, “With these rain events, where we’re getting our annual precipitation in two to three events, it is more critical than ever that we are prepared and protect our soil. There is a lot of biological activity happening in the soil.”

He added cover crops are essentially an investment – and an insurance policy – for farmers. “With this project, there are incentives for you to try these practices and see if you can make them work, build on other people’s experiences. There’s just too much benefit to not be at the table trying some of this. That’s the bottom line.”

Rick Bednarek, NRCS state soil scientist, said cover crop implementation has increased in Iowa in the last several years, as well as in other states, with Iowans planting 5,000 acres of cover in 2009 and 300,000 acres in 2013.

“No-till will improve your soil in seven to nine years, but you can speed that up to two to four years by adding cover crops,” he said. “If you add livestock, you’ll see benefits in less than two years.”

After the rye is harvested for silage, corn will be planted into the residue, with about 2 million gallons per year from the dairy operation’s manure injected into the soil twice a year to nourish each growing crop, Lawstuen told the Cedar Rapids Gazette last month.

“No soil will be disturbed, enabling beneficial microorganisms to flourish,” he said. “The soil will be covered the year-round and held in place by growing roots.”

Lawstuen added Iowa’s Dairy Center will “harvest all the corn and rye silage needed to feed its high-producing 120-cow herd.”