CTIC is a clearinghouse for a wide range of information on conservation agriculture. Click on one of the themes below to browse our site, or look for a particular practice or place in the search bar.
Ag Consultant Resources
Bees and Pollinators
Buffer Strips
Community Organizing
Conservation Tillage
Conservation Practices—Adoption
Crop Residue Management (CRM) Survey
Drainage Water Management
Cover Crops
Cover Crop Survey
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP)
Demonstration Projects
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
Grazing and Rangeland
Hypoxia
Know Your Watershed
Leadership
Mississippi River Basin Initiat ... more. |
Farmers in the Western Lake Erie Basin Can Earn Money in New CTIC Phosphorus Reduction Pilot Program
Farmers in the Western Lake Erie Basin—including parts of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana—can earn money through a phosphorus load reduction pilot program. The “Phosphorus Load-Reduction Stimulation Program” (PLUS-UP) program, coordinated by the Conservation Technology Information ... more. |
... reward farmers for their reductions in phosphorus loss. With all the issues related to water quality in the Western Lake Erie Basin, we hope to drive improvements through this market-based effort.”
Cover Crop Connections
The project will encourage farmers in the Maumee and Sandusky river basins to reduce P loads by 40 percent using subsurface application, cover crops, and buffer strips. Through educational materials, workshops, and one-on-one training, CTIC, The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) and the Soil Health Partnership (SHP) will provide technical support to farmers on sustainable nutrient management practices.
Using the Operational Tillage Information System (OpTIS)—which analyzes publicly available satellite imagery to track tillage and cover crop adoptio ... more. |
Conservation Buffers
Conservation buffers are small areas or strips of land in permanent vegetation, designed to slow water runoff, provide shelter and stabilize riparian areas. Strategically placed buffer strips in the agricultural landscape can effectively mitigate the movement of sediment, nutrients, and pesticides within farm fields and from farm fields.
Buffers include: contour buffer strips, field borders, filter strips, grassed waterways, living snow fences, riparian buffers, shelterbelts/windbreaks, (grass, shrubs and trees), and wetlands.
The small amount of land taken out of production hel ... more. |
... fertilizers
Plan nutrient regimen
Right Time
Make nutrients available when crops need them
Time the application
Consider controlled release technologies and inhibitors
Choose fertilizer product
Right Place
Keep nutrients where crops can use them
Choose application method
Incorporate fertilizer
Use buffer strips
Use conservation tillage
Implement cover crop systems
Right Rate
Match amount of fertilizer to crop needs
Test soils
Yield goal analysis
Crop removal balance
Nutrient management planning
Plant tissue analysis
Record keeping
Variable rate technology
Site-specific management
Sponsors
... more. |
... fertilizers
Plan nutrient regimen
Right Time
Make nutrients available when crops need them
Time the application
Consider controlled release technologies and inhibitors
Choose fertilizer product
Right Place
Keep nutrients where crops can use them
Choose application method
Incorporate fertilizer
Use buffer strips
Use conservation tillage
Implement cover crop systems
Right Rate
Match amount of fertilizer to crop needs
Test soils
Yield goal analysis
Crop removal balance
Nutrient management planning
Plant tissue analysis
Record keeping
Variable rate technology
Site-specific management
Sponsors
... more. |
... fertilizers
+ Plan nutrient regimen
Right Time
Make nutrients available when crops need them
+ Time the application
+ Consider controlled release technologies and inhibitors
+ Choose fertilizer product
Right Place
Keep nutrients where crops can use them
+ Choose application method
+ Incorporate fertilizer
+ Use buffer strips
+ Use conservation tillage
+ Implement cover crop systems
Right Rate
Match amount of fertilizer to crop needs
+ Test soils
+ Yield goal analysis
+ Crop removal balance
+ Nutrient management planning
+ Plant tissue analysis
+ Record keeping
+ Variable rate technology
+ Site-specific management
... more. |
... fertilizers
Plan nutrient regimen
Right Time
Make nutrients available when crops need them
Time the application
Consider controlled release technologies and inhibitors
Choose fertilizer product
Right Place
Keep nutrients where crops can use them
Choose application method
Incorporate fertilizer
Use buffer strips
Use conservation tillage
Implement cover crop systems
Right Rate
Match amount of fertilizer to crop needs
Test soils
Yield goal analysis
Crop removal balance
Nutrient management planning
Plant tissue analysis
Record keeping
Variable rate technology
Site-specific management
Sponsors
... more. |
... fertilizers
Plan nutrient regimen
Right Time
Make nutrients available when crops need them
Time the application
Consider controlled release technologies and inhibitors
Choose fertilizer product
Right Place
Keep nutrients where crops can use them
Choose application method
Incorporate fertilizer
Use buffer strips
Use conservation tillage
Implement cover crop systems
Right Rate
Match amount of fertilizer to crop needs
Test soils
Yield goal analysis
Crop removal balance
Nutrient management planning
Plant tissue analysis
Record keeping
Variable rate technology
Site-specific management
Sponsor
... more. |
... when crops need them
+ Time the application
+ Consider controlled release technologies and inhibitors
+ Choose fertilizer product
Right Place
Keep nutrients where crops can use them
+ Choose application method
+ Incorporate fertilizer
+ Use buffer strips
+ Use conservation tillage
+ Implement cover crop systems
Right Rate
Match amount of fertilizer to crop needs
+ Test soils
+ Yield goal analysis
+ Crop removal balance
+ Nutrient management planning
+ Plant tissue analys ... more. |
... when crops need them
+ Time the application
+ Consider controlled release technologies and inhibitors
+ Choose fertilizer product
Right Place
Keep nutrients where crops can use them
+ Choose application method
+ Incorporate fertilizer
+ Use buffer strips
+ Use conservation tillage
+ Implement cover crop systems
Right Rate
Match amount of fertilizer to crop needs
+ Test soils
+ Yield goal analysis
+ Crop removal balance
+ Nutrient management planning
+ Plant tissue analysis
... more. |
... them
+ Time the application
+ Consider controlled release technologies and inhibitors
+ Choose fertilizer product
Right Place
Keep nutrients where crops can use them
+ Choose application method
+ Incorporate fertilizer
+ Use buffer strips
+ Use conservation tillage
+ Implement cover crop systems
Right Rate
Match amount of fertilizer to crop needs
+ Test soils
+ Yield goal analysis
+ Crop removal balance
+ Nutrient management planning
... more. |
Conservation Buffer Facts
Conservation Buffers are small areas or strips of land in vegetation, designed to slow water runoff, provide
shelter and stabilize riparian areas. Strategically placed in the agricultural landscape, buffers can effectively mitigate
the movement of sediment, nutrients, and pesticides within farm fields. Buffers include: contour buffer strips, field
orders, filter strips, windbreaks, and wetlands. A small amount of land in buffers can assist producers in meeting
both economic and environmental goals.
Cleaner Water
Located in environmentally sensitive areas, buffers provide another line of defense to filter water both surface
and shallow ground water before it enters streams and lakes.
Can re ... more. |
... rill erosion.
How it helps
Vegetation provides cover and habitat for small birds and animals.
The strips reduce erosion by slowing water flow and increasing water infiltration.
By reducing siltation and filtering nutrients and chemicals from runoff, grass strips improve water quality.
Planning ahead
Have you decided whether you want parallel crop strips or parallel buffer strips?
Are other conservation measures such as crop residue management installed or planned to help reduce siltation of grass strips?
Will planned acres in row crops meet your production objectives?
Tech notes
Buffer strips must be at least 15 feet wide. *
Either crop strips or grass strips may be parallel. Parallel crop strips are easier to farm with no point rows, but that result ... more. |
... the 20-acre samples they previously used. “We quickly learned where we need to fertilize, and where we don’t,” said Butch Schroeder. “There are some soils we don’t even have to apply potash and phosphorus.”
The Schroeders not only manage their residue, but they also apply conservation practices, such as terraces, grassed waterways, field borders, contour buffer strips and filter strips that keep the soil in place, slow runoff and maintain water quality in adjacent streams and water bodies. “We always plant on the contour regardless of the steepness of slopes,” said Schroeder.
He says he has even talked prospective landlords into retiring highly erodible, damaged cropland into the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) that he could have farmed as ... more. |
A strip of grass, trees or shrubs that filters runoff and removes sediment, fertilizer, and pesticides before they reach water bodies or water sources including wells.
How it works
Strips of grass, trees and/or shrubs slow water flow and cause contaminants like sediment, pesticides, and fertilizers to collect in vegetation. Collected nutrients are used by the vegetation, rather than entering water supplies. Filtered water then enters water bodies.
How it helps
Grass, trees and shrubs provide cover for small birds and animals.
Ground cover reduces soil erosion.
The vege ... more. |
Protecting a stream by excluding livestock and by establishing buffer
zones of vegetation to filter runoff.
How it works
Grass, riprap and gabions are installed along the edges of a stream to buffer the banks from heavy stream flow and reduce erosion. Fencing prevents cattle from trampling banks, destroying vegetation and stirring ... more. |
Contour Strip- cropping
Crop rotation and contouring combined in equal-width strips of corn or soybeans planted on the contour and alternated with strips of oats, grass or legumes.
How it works
Crops are arranged so that a strip of meadow or small grain is alternated with a strip of row crop. Not more than half a field can be planted to row crops. Meadow slows runoff, increases infiltration, traps sediment and provides surface cover. Ridges formed by contoured rows slow wate ... more. |
2020 Conservation In Action Tour- In Person EventPostponed
Join us virtually!
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, CTIC's 2020 Conservation in Action Tour has been postponed to 2021. We will instead host a virtual event in collaboration with the American Society of Agronomy's Sustainable Agronomy Conference on August 20, 2020.
Session #5: Environmental Benefits of ... more. |
... it works
Strips of perennial vegetation are established at the outside edges of a field where excessive sheet and rill erosion is occurring. The grass or legume strips replace crop end rows, which would be planted up and down hill and be highly erosive. Field borders are sometimes referred to as picture frames of grass, and are used with contour farming, terrace, buffer strip and contour stripcropping systems. The grass or legume in the strip protects steep field edges from soil erosion, and provides turning and travel lanes around the field.
How it helps
Vegetative cover reduces sheet and rill erosion by slowing water flow.
Vegetation filters runoff to improve water quality.
Grass and legume strips may be harvested in some cases and are easier to tu ... more. |
... or more of the soil surface with crop residue, after planting, to reduce soil erosion by water. Where soil erosion by wind is the primary concern, any system that maintains at least 1,000 pounds per acre of flat, small grain residue equivalent on the surface throughout the critical wind erosion period.
No-till/strip-till
The soil is left undisturbed from harvest to planting except for strips up to 1/3 of the row width (strips may involve only residue disturbance or may include soil disturbance). Planting or drilling is accomplished using disc openers, coulter(s), row cleaners, in-row chisels or roto-tillers. Weed control is accomplished primarily with crop protection products. Cultivation may be used for emergency weed control. Other common terms used to describe No-till include dire ... more. |
... with feed and water and ends after the nutrients are added to the soil, says Mike Beard, who owns Meadowlane Farm with his son Dave, son-in-law Chris, and two stepbrothers. Together they raise 15,000 pigs per cycle from weaning (at about 10 to 13 pounds) to finish (at 270 pounds). The family also farms about 1,300 acres of corn and soybeans, with forest, wetland and waterways preserved and buffered around the operation.
Less in, less out
Beard is a big fan of the fertilizer value of manure, but he’s also dedicated to minimizing its nutrient content on a pound-for-pound basis. That effort starts at the feed trough, where careful ration formulation minimizes the amount of excess nutrients the pigs consume.
Obviously, a 200-pound hog requires a di ... more. |
... farmers worked with a certified crop adviser to evaluate nutrient comparisons on their own farms. Farmers compared their own nutrient application rates with either a higher or lower application rate. Upon completion of the program, the farmer and certified crop adviser received an economic analysis based on the farmer’s actual nutrient costs and yields from replicated strips. To compensate the farmer’s time and to offset the crop adviser’s fees, the farmer receives $1,200.00.
In 2006, program coordinators launched the NMI as a pilot program. It has now grown to over 150 on- farm trials in southern Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture assists through program promotion, data collection, data compilation, and education ... more. |
From the cover crops of the Hmong American Farmers Association farm near Hastings to Northfield farmer Dave Legvold’s saturated buffers and the impeccable dairy and manure handling system at Burfeind Dairy Farm near Goodhue, participants in the Conservation Technology Information Center’s (CTIC) eighth annual Conservation in Action Tour got a first-hand look at systems that protect water quality, build soil health and improve farm profitability.
What people enjoyed most about the tour:
The opportunity to see c ... more. |
... fertilizer costs and reduces nutrient losses.
Allows for field application when conditions are right.
Planning ahead
Is the structure planned for the proper location considering the landscape, potential odor problems, visibility, aesthetic value and compatibility with existing farm buildings?
Will the structure store manure in a form you have the equipment to handle?
Are there buffer zones of vegetation around the structure to filter any runoff and to improve appearance?
Is the structure the right size to handle the amount of manure produced by your livestock during the planned storage period?
Tech notes
Storage period should be determined by manure use schedule.
Plan to empty at least twice a year.
If manure is stored as a solid, it should be protected from p ... more. |
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... (IAWA) and Iowa’s Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) have signed on as a Diamond-level sponsors of the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) Conservation in Action Tour. The tour, which will be held August 20 and 21 in Des Moines, Iowa, is CTIC's 12th annual program of its type.
The tour will include a wide range of practices, from prairie strips to bioreactors, interseeded cover crops, stover harvesting, drainage water management techniques, and precision application of fertilizer. The tour also includes lunch at New Century FS and dinner and a keynote speaker at Jester Park Lodge in Granger, Iowa.
Bayer, Mosaic and Syngenta have sponsored previous Conservation in Action Tours. The Conservation Infrastructure Initiative sign ... more. |
DIG DEEP INTO CONSERVATION PRACTICES ON CTIC'S CONSERVATION IN ACTION TOUR, AUG 20-21
The Conservation in Action Tour on August 20 and 21, organized by the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC), will give participants a chance to dig deep into a wide range of conservation farming practices, including constructed systems such as wood chip bioreactors, saturated buffers, sediment control basins and others.
The tour begins and ends in Des Moines. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig
will welcome the group at an opening social on the evening of August 20 hosted by John Deere at the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates in downtown Des Moines.
On-Farm Installation Site
&nbs ... more. |
Bayer CropScience, The Mosaic Company, Syngenta and the Conservation Infrastructure Initiative co-led by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) and the Iowa Association of Water Agencies (IAWA) have signed on as a Diamond-level sponsors of the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) Conservation in Action Tour. The tour, which will be held August 20 and 21 in Des Moines, Iowa ... more. |
... Water Agencies (IAWA) have signed on as a Diamond-level sponsors of the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) Conservation in Action Tour. The tour, which will be held August 20 and 21 in Des Moines, Iowa, is CTIC's 12th annual program of its type.
The tour will include a wide range of practices, from prairie strips to bioreactors, interseeded cover crops, stover harvesting, drainage water management techniques, and precision application of fertilizer. The tour also includes lunch at New Century FS and dinner and a keynote speaker at Jester Park Lodge in Granger, Iowa.
Bayer, Mosaic and Syngenta have sponsored previous Conservation in Acti ... more. |
... in implementing conservation and production goals.
LICA Demonstration Farm, Melbourne. The tour will visit the 80-acre home of a wide range of constructed conservation systems for an up-close look at many in-field and edge-of-field practices that protect water quality and build healthy soils.
Tesdell Century Farm, Slater. This fifth-generation farm is home to an installation of prairie strips, which Lee Tesdell and Iowa State University researchers use to study and demonstrate the power of plant diversity in building soils and habitat on the farm.
The tour also includes lunch at New Century FS and dinner and a keynote speaker at Jester Park Lodge in Granger, Iowa.
Online registration for the tour is quick and easy.The $175 registration fee includes transportation, stops ... more. |
... and production goals.
LICA Demonstration Farm, Melbourne. The tour will visit the 80-acre home of a wide range of constructed conservation systems for an up-close look at many in-field and edge-of-field practices that protect water quality and build healthy soils.
Tesdell Century Farm, Slater. This fifth-generation farm is home to an installation of prairie strips, which Lee Tesdell and Iowa State University researchers use to study and demonstrate the power of plant diversity in building soils and habitat on the farm.
The tour also includes lunch at New Century FS and dinner and a keynote speaker at Jester Park Lodge in Granger, Iowa.
Register Now
Online registration for the tour is quick and easy at https://www.ct ... more. |
CTIC's 12th annual Conservation in Action Tour will bring more than 200 conservation-minded participants to Des Moines on August 20-21, 2019 for an up-close look at conservation practices in the field. The tour's theme, Conservation at the Leading Edge, emphasizes both edge-of-field systems as well as cutting-edge practices such as prairie strips.
"CTIC's Conservation in Action Tours are always a great way to not only see conservation practices in real-world settings and talk to the people who are implementing them, but also provide a unique opportunity to spend the day with people you wouldn't ordinarily get to walk around a farm with," says Tim Palmer, who is co-chairing the Conservation in Action Tour pla ... more. |
... runoff and increasing infiltration rates.
Healthy, well-managed woodlands provide long-term wildlife habitat.
Planning ahead
Is the soil suitable for producing wood crops?
Is the soil suitable for the tree species you have selected?
Is there a market for the species you want to plant?
Do you need this land for crops or livestock?
Tech notes
Remove brush and till the strips of pasture or sod where trees will be planted the fall before planting.
Complete spring planting by May 15. Fall planting should begin between September 1-15. *
Standard forest planting spacings are 6'x6', at a rate of 1,210 trees per acre; 6'x7', 1,037 trees per acre; 6'x8', 908 trees per acre.
Tree seedlings should be planted within seven days of their arrival.
K ... more. |
... minimum of 100 feet down slope from the well.
Apply pesticides on days with minimal wind to prevent chemical drift into farmsteads.
Use an antisiphon in the hose when filling a sprayer tank to be sure chemicals will not siphon back to the well and/or keep the hose at least 6" from the top of the tank.
Maintenance
Keep an emergency chemical spill kit handy.
Maintain any filter strips surrounding the farmstead or wellhead.
Repair wellhead casing as needed.
Repair any cracks in concrete pads used for chemical mixing, loading
or container washing.
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... by leaching, runoff or drift.
How it helps
Scouting and spot treatment for only those pests that are threatening can save money.
Using fewer chemicals improves water quality.
Specific treatments for specific pests on specific areas of a field prevents over-treatment of pests.
Planning ahead
Which soils on your farm are likely to leach pesticides?
Did you establish filter strips along streams?
Did you consider pest control alternatives?
Did you use records of crops and pest control for reference?
Did you rotate crops to reduce the chance of pest problems?
Tech notes
Following are guidelines to follow for applying and mixing pesticides:
Complete a pesticide risk assessment of potential environmental damage from leaching or runoff. Consider this information ... more. |
... structure, or underground outlet is acceptable.
Establish vegetative outlets before a diversion is constructed.
Diversions should not be built in high sediment producing areas unless other conservation measures are installed too.
Maintenance
Keep outlet clear of debris.
Keep burrowing animals out of the diversion.
Maintain vegetative cover on the diversion ridge.
Install filter strips above the diversion channel to trap sediment and protect the diversion, if needed.
Fertilize as needed.
* Check local recommendations.
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