Perennial crops fill a niche in the landscape

Agri News
Thursday, June 23, 2005
http://webstar.agrinews.com/agrinews/284132053468373.bsp

Perennial crops fill a niche in the landscape

By Janet Kubat Willette
Agri News staff writer

Changes in thinking will have to occur in order for widespread changes to happen on the landscape.

In recent years, corn and soybean plantings have grown at the expense of hay and small grains. In the Wells Creek Watershed, corn planting increased by 22 percent and soybean planting by 74 percent from 1987 to 1997, according to an article published in the January issue of the journal BioScience.

In Chippewa County, another area studied, soybean acreage increased 37 percent and corn acreage jumped 72 percent during the same decade.

The number of dairy farms has also declined, taking hay and small grain production with them.

Grazing is thought of as a step backward by some, said Michelle Benrud, who farms with her husband, Roger, near Goodhue.

But grazing, hay, small grains and cover crops can fill an environmental need, said George Boody, co-author of the article that appeared in BioScience, and executive director of the Land Stewardship Project.

The Land Stewardship Project coordinated the research effort in the Wells Creek Watershed and a sub-watershed of the Chippewa River that evaluated what effect changes in the landscape would have on water quality, fish populations, greenhouse gases, carbon sequestration, farm production costs, net farm income, flooding, sedimentation and rural communities.

The effort involved the U.S. Geological Survey, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the University of Minnesota, Minnesota State University-Mankato, Bemidji State University, Iowa State University, the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
The study "Multiple Benefits of Agriculture," analyzed four scenarios and the impacts those scenarios would have on the landscape.

The fourth scenario produced an 84 percent reduction in sediment levels in the Wells Creek Watershed and a 49 percent reduction in the Chippewa River in the study completed using ADAPT or agricultural drainage and pesticide transport, a field-scale model for water table management.

"This study shows a direct correlation between getting more year-round plant cover on the land and improved water quality and fish health in the streams," said Bruce Bondracek, an aquatic biologist who co-authored the BioScience article.
Boody concedes that farmers won't suddenly decide to switch to grazing or more small grains in their rotations.

"There's no question we need to look at policy in the big sense of it, and a start toward that is the Conservation Security Program," Boody said. "We need to fully fund conservation and rural development programs that relate to new market development and É a first step in making that happen is to enact payment limitations on commodity programs and that would help bring conservation, commodity and rural development programs in better alignment in terms of achieving the overall objectives we want to see them achieve."

"These results show the positive benefits of getting more dairy cows on the land eating perennial plants like grass and hay," Boody said. "But farmers need to be given specific incentives and support for making transitions into such systems."
The study found less sedimentation from perennial systems, reductions in nitrogen losses and reduced flooding because runoff decreased. Net farm income also increased.

"There are multiple benefits of managing the land well," said Beth Knudsen, who formerly coordinated the Wells Creek Watershed for the Minnesota DNR.
The whole community benefits from well-managed land, agreed Tex Hawkins, a watershed biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Healthy soil results in more production from the soil and healthy land also benefits wildlife, he said.
Farmers have become more conservation-minded in the last 50 years, Hawkins said, and have taken steps to make sure water moves more slowly off the land. Excessive runoff is the enemy of farmers and also, wildlife and the environment.
There's more to be done, with intensive urbanization and agriculture continually pressuring habitat, but Hawkins is optimistic programs like the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program will yield benefits for farmers and wildlife.

On the Web: www.landstewardshipproject.org/mba/multifunc_Jan05_BioSc.pdf

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