Forty-five farmers, legislative leaders, state officials and media spent a day in mid-September touring southeast Minnesota farms in Mower County to learn more about soil and water conservation and the research partnership between farmers, the University of Minnesota and conservation groups.

The morning began at Shafer Farms, Inc. a family farm near Goodhue, Minn., and ended in Mower County near Grand Meadow below wind towers in Wayne and Cindy Dewall’s corn field.

“It is an honor to welcome legislative officials and policy group leaders to my farm to share with them how my wife and I care for the land on which we plant our crops,” said Wayne Dewall, a farmer.

District 27 Senator Dan Sparks was one legislator in attendance.

The Dewall family farm participates in the Root River Field to Stream Partnership, a project funded in part by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and Minnesota Agricultural Waters Resource Coalition, designed to help Southeast Minnesota farmers and policy-makers better understand how practices on the land affect water quality on a larger scale. Monitoring occurs both at the edge of agricultural fields and at in-stream locations. After multiple years of data collection, the information will help to identify specific areas where conservation effortswill be most effective. This is the first year that information is being gathered from Dewall’s farm.

“Research like this will help remedy the misconceptions that our neighbors sometimes have about our farming practices,” said Rob Hanks, United Soybean Board member, Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council (MSR&PC)director and Mower County farmer. “With the data that will be collected and analyzed from these fields and the in-stream monitoring sites of the Root River project, it will be easier to determine the actual environmental impact that agriculture has.”

“Dewall does a great job with conservation on his farm. Like thousands of farmers across Minnesota, they care about the land and preserving our resources for future generations,” Hanks continued.

Unlike the rolling hills and bluffs to the east, the Dewall’s farmland is relatively flat. One way they practice good conservation is through patterned tiles in their fields. Hydrology management allows water to infiltrate the soil, taking advantage of the soils natural filtering powers before it is released into streams.

“Research has shown about a 50 percent reduction in erosion from farmland that is tiled,” Dewall said. “And that’s a good thing, because this land is worth a lot to us, we want to keep our soil and its nutrients just where they are.”

Mower County Commissioner Ray Tucker added that hydrology management in corn and soybean fields leads to a 15 to 20 percent increase in crop yields, which is important to help feed the world’s growing population.