skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Bill Clinton is hospitalized for observation and testing after developing a fever; Biden commutes most federal death sentences before Trump takes office; Proposed post office 'slowdown' threatens rural Americans; Report: Tax credits shrink poverty for NM kids, families; Tiny plastic pieces enter the body in ways you'd never think of.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Biden commutes the sentences of most federal death row inmates, the House Ethics Committee says former Rep. Gaetz may have committed statutory rape, and the national archivist won't certify the ERA without congressional approval.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Rural folks could soon be shut out of loans for natural disasters if Project 2025 has its way, Taos, New Mexico weighs options for its housing shortage, and the top states providing America's Christmas trees revealed.

Iowa Increases Cover-Crop Acreage, But at Slower Pace

play audio
Play

Tuesday, May 28, 2019   

DES MOINES, Iowa — The sustainable farming practice of cover cropping grew in Iowa in 2018, but is still far below the goal called for in Iowa's Nutrient Reduction Strategy. Cover crops are planted in the off-season to help protect soil from water and wind erosion and reduce nutrient runoff into waterways.

Using satellite imagery, the Environmental Working Group compared cover-crop acreage in Iowa, Indiana and Illinois from 2015-2017, and found a net increase in all three states. Iowa's acreage grew about 16% last year. Report author Soren Rundquist said it's a step in the right direction, but far from what is needed.

"We welcome this growth of this practice, intended to reduce agricultural runoff polluting surface waters,” Rundquist said. “But the scale to which this practice needs to exist to make substantial change is still kind of a drop in the bucket, more or less."

Cereal rye is the most common Iowa cover crop, followed by radishes, oats and wheat. Iowa's Nutrient Reduction Strategy collaborative estimated cover crops prevent about 30% of nitrates and phosphorus from reaching state waterways.

Iowa has seen a 19% cumulative decline in new cover-crop acres since 2015.

For farmers, cover crops have their challenges, including costs to implement the practice and the possibility of lost yields. Rundquist said cost sharing and crop incentives can help offset those costs. And, he added, farmers already using cover crops understand they're a long-term investment.

"The adoption of this practice is kind of contingent on farmers talking to each other, and more or less hearing it from other producers, seeing the gains and benefits of utilizing this practice on their own,” he said.

Since 2015, satellite photos showed cover crops in Iowa increased from 592,000 acres to 907,000 acres. But that's well below the goal of 12.5 million acres called for in the Nutrient Reduction Strategy.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Juana Valle's well is one of 20 sites tested in California's San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast regions in the first round of preliminary sampling by University of California-Berkeley researchers and the Community Water Center. The results showed 96 parts per trillion of total PFAS in her water, including 32 parts per trillion of PFOS - both considered potentially hazardous amounts. (Hannah Norman/KFF Health News)

Environment

play sound

By Hannah Norman for KFF Health News.Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the KFF Health News-Public News Ser…


Environment

play sound

Animal rights organizers are regrouping after mixed results at the ballot box in November. A measure targeting factory farms passed in Berkeley but …

Environment

play sound

Farmers in Nebraska and across the nation might not be in panic mode anymore thanks to another extension of the Farm Bill but they still want Congress…


Immigration law experts say applying for asylum status can be very lengthy, and that programs such as Temporary Protected Status can fill the void for people fleeing violence elsewhere in the world. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

With 2025 almost here, organizations assisting Minnesota's Latino populations say they're laser focused on a couple of areas - mental health-care …

Social Issues

play sound

A new report found Connecticut's fiscal controls on the state budget restrict long-term growth. The controls were introduced during the 2018 budget …

As of August, enrollment in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System had reached 66,114 students, representing an increase of 8.4%, according to state data. (Adobe Stock/AI generated image)

Social Issues

play sound

Nearly a dozen changes could be made to the Kentucky Community and Technical College system, under Senate Joint Resolution 179, passed by lawmakers …

Social Issues

play sound

By Jessica Scott-Reid for Sentient.Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for Arkansas News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collab…

play sound

By Julieta Cardenas for Sentient.Broadcast version by Freda Ross for Texas News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collaboration …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021