Iowa State University last week announced it is beginning a state-funded project in partnership with the Iowa Nutrient Research and Education Council (INREC) to explore how to best measure Iowa farmers’ progress in reducing nutrients moving from fields into rivers and streams.

The Iowa Legislature in 2015 passed legislation funding the effort led by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State, supported by up to $410,000 per year for three years. INREC will receive $250,000 per year for the in-field progress measurement project as part of that appropriation.

Iowa State selected INREC to partner in the measurement effort as a result of a call for proposals focused on expertise and capability for data collection and verification of agricultural practices at the field level.

"After reviewing proposals, INREC stood out as the best organization positioned to work with a combination of agricultural retailers and farmers to report on nutrient management, tillage and conservation practices in the field," said John Lawrence, associate dean in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State.

INREC is a non-profit organization formed in 2014 to support goals of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy. A collaboration of agricultural businesses, organizations and industries, INREC seeks to measure and demonstrate environmental progress of Iowa farmers, foster innovation of new agricultural and environmental technologies, and enhance certified crop adviser and agricultural retailer roles as change agents working with Iowa farmers to achieve environmental goals.

INREC will aggregate data and analyze the impact of water quality improvement practices. Iowa State researchers will use the field level data to estimate nutrient load reductions across the state.

The project will solicit information from agricultural retailers across the state who provide the bulk of services to crop producers. By combining the information gathered into an anonymized data set, a more accurate view of nutrient strategy practices can be obtained.

"Actually seeing what is happening at the field level will provide a much more reliable view of Iowa’s progress," said Shawn Richmond of INREC. "This survey of retailer records is the best data set we have to accurately assess progress."