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From Field To Stream: How Farmers And Ranchers Are Protecting Water Quality

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River running through farmland

During National Water Quality Month, we’re recognizing the voluntary efforts that America’s farmers and ranchers are implementing to protect the water that connects our nation’s farms, families, and communities.

August is National Water Quality Month, celebrating one of earth’s most vital resources: clean water. Across America, farmers and ranchers are working with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to protect the water that connects our country’s farms, families, and communities. 

Several factors impact how nutrients move through the landscape, including rainfall amount, rainfall intensity, and soil moisture. By using the agency’s whole-farm holistic conservation approach, producers can bundle practices to build healthier soils, optimize nutrient management, and increase edge-of-field filtration - ultimately improving water quality and operational efficiencies.

Paxton Pegues and his sixteen-year-old daughter, Rachel, lay out temporary fencing to facilitate their rotational grazing plan on their farm in Chesterfield, South Carolina. This plan allows vegetation in previously grazed pastures to regenerate, encourages an even distribution of grazing throughout the field, and allows rest periods in between rotations to improve the health of the grass.
Paxton Pegues and his sixteen-year-old daughter, Rachel, lay out temporary fencing to facilitate their rotational grazing plan on their farm in Chesterfield, South Carolina. This plan allows vegetation in previously grazed pastures to regenerate, encourages an even distribution of grazing throughout the field, and allows rest periods in between rotations to improve the health of the grass. (USDA photo by Susan Griggs). 

Conservation practices such as grazing management demonstrate how protecting water quality and building operational productivity go hand-in-hand. A well-managed grazing system in which livestock are rotated around smaller paddocks can help lower feed costs while increasing forage quality, improving livestock health and productivity. The practice also offers a number of water quality benefits. By allowing sections of pasture to rest, the practice prevents overgrazing, reducing runoff and limiting soil erosion

: Cover crops grow between corn stalk residue on a field. Both cover crops and residue management can help increase soil organic matter, protect soil from erosion, and increase soil moisture availability for cash crops.
Cover crops grow between corn stalk residue on a field. Both cover crops and residue management can help increase soil organic matter, protect soil from erosion, and increase soil moisture availability for cash crops.

NRCS also offers financial and technical assistance to help producers build nutrient-rich, healthy soil through practices such as conservation crop rotation, cover crops, and residue and tillage management. These practices build organic matter in the soil, increasing its ability to absorb and filter the water while improving the cash crop’s nutrient efficiency.

Fertilizers, manure, and soil amendments are all high-value inputs that are strategically placed on the landscape to maximize crop production.  By taking soil tests, producers can tailor nutrient needs informed by the best placement, optimal application timing, the correct application rate, and the right type of nutrient input. Adhering to these practices helps keep nutrients where producers want them – in the field increasing cash crop yields.

This two-stage ditch is a modified drainage channel. The narrow, deep channel carries normal flow and is buffered by two sloped, vegetated benches or floodplains. During high flow, the water rises to the level of the sloped benches, which help to slow water velocity, reducing erosion and allowing sediments and nutrients to settle and be absorbed. (USDA photo by Brooke DeCubellis).
This two-stage ditch is a modified drainage channel. The narrow, deep channel carries normal flow and is buffered by two sloped, vegetated benches or floodplains. During high flow, the water rises to the level of the sloped benches, which help to slow water velocity, reducing erosion and allowing sediments and nutrients to settle and be absorbed. (USDA photo by Brooke DeCubellis). 

When heavy rainfall or flooding occurs, crop fields can have trouble absorbing excess water, which can carry away precious topsoil and nutrients. Edge-of-field practices including field borders, two-stage ditches, and grade stabilization structures help to slow water movement, trapping nutrients and sediment to improve water quality downstream.

Farmers and ranchers prioritize water quality and conservation, making an impact across the country, including in National Water Quality Initiative priority watersheds, the Mississippi River Basin, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Great Lakes region.

The USDA works closely with conservation partners and farmers to implement a whole-farm holistic conservation management approach to enhance water quality based on lessons learned from edge-of-field data. At this water quality station, USDA ARS is studying the effectiveness of stacked conservation practices. (USDA photo by Brooke DeCubellis).
 The USDA works closely with conservation partners and farmers to implement a whole-farm holistic conservation management approach to enhance water quality based on lessons learned from edge-of-field data. At this water quality station, USDA ARS is studying the effectiveness of stacked conservation practices. (USDA photo by Brooke DeCubellis).

By partnering with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, universities and others through efforts like Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP), NRCS is able to quantify the environmental effects of agricultural conservation practices and programs at the watershed level, ensuring that producers get the credit they deserve for voluntary conservation efforts.

Scientists partner with local farmers to study how NRCS conservation practices work and strive to innovate to make them more effective – monitoring edges of fields and small watersheds to see how water and nutrients are moving through the soil profile.

Edge-of-field monitoring, combined with in-stream monitoring, can provide a more thorough picture of improvements within a watershed. Water samples like the ones shown here measure chemical indicators, nutrient levels, sediment content, mineral composition, and physical properties to evaluate water quality and its suitability for intended uses. (USDA photo by Brooke DeCubellis).
 Edge-of-field monitoring, combined with in-stream monitoring, can provide a more thorough picture of improvements within a watershed. Water samples like the ones shown here measure chemical indicators, nutrient levels, sediment content, mineral composition, and physical properties to evaluate water quality and its suitability for intended uses.  (USDA photo by Brooke DeCubellis).

Having on-farm data is critical in building scientific models to more accurately predict the impact of conservation practices on the environment – from soil health and biodiversity to water quality.  Better data leads to better models, which in turn leads to better on-farm decisions.

The data also helps conservation technical providers target areas and accelerate voluntary, on-farm conservation investments where they can deliver the greatest benefits for clean water. Together, America’s producers, researchers, and conservation specialists are making improvements in soil health, natural vitality, and water quality by implementing practical conservation solutions on working lands.
 

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