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The Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction podcast explores efforts to reduce nutrients in Illinois waterways from agricultural runoff to municipal wastewater with host Todd Gleason and producers Rachel Curry, Nicole Haverback and Luke Zwilling with University of Illinois Extension.
Read the blog at extension.illinois.edu/nlr/blog.
Episode 51 | Illinois Farm Bureau Nutrient Stewardship Grant Program
00:00:06:07 - 00:00:30:02
Todd Gleason
This is the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast, episode 51. The Illinois Farm Bureau Nutrient Stewardship Grant program. I’m the University of Illinois Extension's Todd Gleason. Today we’ll explore the NSG, the Nutrient Stewardship Grant program, with the folks at the Illinois Farm Bureau, beginning with Raelynn Parmely. She's the Illinois Farm Bureau environmental program manager.
00:00:30:05 - 00:00:31:29
Raelynn Parmely
Sure. So a little bit of history.
00:00:31:29 - 00:01:10:19
Raelynn Parmely
That's kind of fun. Fifth generation family farm back in Kankakee County. But I've been at Illinois Farm Bureau now going on four years. And really, in my role, I oversee all of our environmental programs, such as the environmental Stewardship grant programs, which we're going to talk about one of those today. And then I also work on developing our communications and information campaigns, fact sheet and resource development, reporting initiatives, etc. Really, a lot of the things that we do in terms of environmental outreach today.
00:01:10:19 - 00:01:14:13
Todd Gleason
We want to talk some about the Nutrient Stewardship Grant program.
00:01:14:13 - 00:01:16:11
Todd Gleason
Can you give me some information about it?
00:01:16:18 - 00:01:38:18
Raelynn Parmely
For context that, you know, this program has been going on for many years, but some of the history here is pretty important. At Farm Bureau, we have farmers and member involvement at really all levels of Illinois Farm Bureau and our membership and our board of directors really help guide the direction on many topic areas.
00:01:38:20 - 00:02:11:21
Raelynn Parmely
And for the nearly ten years, really, the board has set environmental action as one of its priorities, with an emphasis on supporting programs and projects that help lift that up. If we throw it back to around 2013, 2011, 2015, when the Illinois nutrient loss reduction strategy was coming together, our board was really willing and ready to find ways for the organization to take action on the nutrient loss reduction strategy and its goals.
00:02:11:23 - 00:02:40:22
Raelynn Parmely
And so this Nutrient Stewardship grant program was developed in 2015, with the first set of projects beginning in 2016. Our members, our county Farm bureaus, and our board members have really played a hands on role in establishing the program and elevating the successes from year one. And we're really happy to say that the Nutrient Stewardship Grant program has really become a cornerstone of the organizations.
00:02:40:22 - 00:02:45:06
Raelynn Parmely
Overall nutrient stewardship efforts and initiatives.
00:02:45:08 - 00:02:49:26
Todd Gleason
So what type of projects are being funded for the 2023 calendar year?
00:02:49:28 - 00:03:24:05
Raelynn Parmely
So one thing that might be helpful to highlight is we have four priority areas for our nutrient stewardship work that kind of help frame all of our directions on the topic. And really, that's providing education and outreach to farmers, landowners and the general public, supporting research of best management practices to reduce nutrient losses, supporting farmer implementation efforts across the state, and then demonstrating progress toward the long term goals of the nutrient loss reduction strategy.
00:03:24:05 - 00:03:56:06
Raelynn Parmely
And frankly, other, efforts out there. And again, these are really steadfast rules, but they help to prioritize all of the nutrient stewardship programs going on, really, including the grant program. And so, you know, 2023, as an example, we've we've seen a lot of really creative uses of these funds to support some of our bigger picture planning efforts in different watersheds or as match for 319 or RCP projects.
00:03:56:09 - 00:04:29:29
Raelynn Parmely
We've seen funds used to support research and demonstration projects taking place on farms. And for 2023, specifically, we're looking at 23 county farm bureaus working together on 17 projects, which specifically includes this year hosting watershed planning meetings, developing and distributing factsheets, hosting field days, developing cover crop demo plots and a couple of other implementation projects supporting research partnerships and a whole lot more.
00:04:30:01 - 00:04:59:08
Todd Gleason
I'll take a moment here to clarify one of the terms you mentioned. It's the section 319 grants. Since 1992, Illinois EPA has awarded some hundred million dollars in grant funding to organizations like yours, working to improve non source point pollution and water quality. Now, the 319 grants, as you know, are funded at both the state and federal levels for watershed planning, best management practice, implementation, outreach and education programs, and some other eligible activities.
00:04:59:11 - 00:05:19:22
Todd Gleason
These are the kinds of stewardship programs that we're talking about today. Of course, so far that's been with Raelynn Parmely, who manages the environmental programs for the Illinois Farm Bureau. Now, let's bring in three others to our discussion. All our county managers, including Kacie Haag in Lawrence County, Kenzie Zwilling in Richland County. Both are in the southeastern part of the state.
00:05:19:22 - 00:05:24:02
Todd Gleason
And Haley Hannaford, who hails from Knox County, northwest of Peoria.
00:05:24:04 - 00:05:28:13
Todd Gleason
Kacie, first from Lawrence County. Can you tell me something about yourself?
00:05:28:16 - 00:05:38:25
Kacie Haag
Sure. Yeah. So my name is Kacie Haag. I'm currently the Lawrence County Farm Bureau manager. I've been here about two years, and, we are located in Lawrenceville, Illinois
00:05:38:28 - 00:05:41:10
Todd Gleason
and Kenzie, from Richland County.
00:05:41:10 - 00:05:42:29
Kenzie Zwilling
Yeah. So my name is Kenzie Zwilling.
00:05:42:29 - 00:05:52:03
Kenzie Zwilling
I grew up on a grain and livestock farm in Richland County, and I am the Richland County Farm Bureau manager currently, and I have been here since January of 2018.
00:05:52:08 - 00:05:54:26
Todd Gleason
And Hailey Hennenfent with Knox County. Haley.
00:05:54:26 - 00:06:05:19
Hailey Hennenfent
Yeah. Hi, Todd. My name is Hailey Hennenfent, and I am currently the Knox County Farm Bureau manager. I've been here since October of 2017 after I graduated from U of I in May.
00:06:05:22 - 00:06:26:29
Hailey Hennenfent
Originally from Mason and Tazewell counties. Family farm back there. So, Haley, I'll start with you. I'd like to know just a little bit about some of the projects that have been done through the Nutrient Stewardship grant. If any, in your county and, how those projects were done through, the grant program. I mean, how was that determined?
00:06:27:01 - 00:06:51:24
Hailey Hennenfent
Yeah. So since I've got to Knox County and like I said, October of 2017, Knox County has always been in the nutrient stewardship grant program. So when I got here, we had a saturated buffer that was pretty... I didn't really know what was going on with it. And so we decided to do a saturated buffer field day and kind of bring everybody back to it, kind of reintroduce it to the county.
00:06:51:26 - 00:07:12:01
Hailey Hennenfent
And talk about the work we've been doing with U of I through that. And so once we did that, there wasn't too much more we could do with that once kind of U of I did their research. And so I took the nutrient stewardship grant kind of application to our young farmers group and our young farmers, our members, 18 to 35 years old, and we've got a very active group here in Knox County.
00:07:12:01 - 00:07:29:15
Hailey Hennenfent
And so I kind of just took the application to them and said, what do you guys want to see? Here's kind of the parameters. Here's the goals the Illinois Farm Bureau has. What can we do to make it something that you guys will get something out of it? And so I kind of got more than I bargained for after a two hour conversation with them.
00:07:29:15 - 00:07:48:27
Hailey Hennenfent
And they kind of decided that cover crops was a topic that they had interest in, but they weren't really able to implement it kind of back here at home. They maybe they learned at it about it at college or they knew of it. But there's not really a go to guide of how to implement cover crops, especially when you're farming with your family.
00:07:48:29 - 00:08:11:13
Hailey Hennenfent
When change and adding inputs is maybe not the easiest thing to kind of get done. And so we have had this project since 2019. And so it's our cover crop project here in Knox County, where we have a farmer, in 18 out of our 20 townships here that has a 20 acre plot of cover crops that they identified, an issue they were having with that acreage.
00:08:11:15 - 00:08:39:14
Hailey Hennenfent
And we identified a seed mix through our West Central FS, our local, co-op here that gave them a seed mix that would help kind of implement and fix that problem. And so through that, then we've been doing soil sampling since 2019 and are actually right now in the process of working with Giovani at University of Illinois to kind of analyze that data for us and, kind of see how we can paint the picture and get the information out to everybody about cover crops.
00:08:39:16 - 00:08:55:12
Todd Gleason
So part of that partnership is with the University of Illinois through Giovani Preza-Fontes. Oftentimes he's the extension agronomist here on campus. I'm wondering a couple of things what the young farmers would like to know as you make your way through this project. And I'm interested in the seed mix, too.
00:08:55:14 - 00:09:00:08
Hailey Hennenfent
Yeah. So that's a good question. So at first we kind of had four priorities.
00:09:00:08 - 00:09:26:16
Hailey Hennenfent
So grazing was one. Just a simple grazing not necessarily an issue but kind of wanting to see how they could offset the cost of the inputs of cover crops to use it as grazing. Another one was compaction, another one was erosion. And then another one was just simple nutrient loss, water runoff. And so I can get you the specifics on the seed mixes, but that's kind of our resident FS expert on all the mix that goes into those cover crop mixes.
00:09:26:18 - 00:09:58:01
Hailey Hennenfent
But working with Giovani, we've had these soil sampling data, but how? Trying to kind of decipher it and then get it to a spot where it's easy to understand and read for not only just other producers or farmers here in the county that are interested and know the projects going on and kind of want to maybe adapt cover crops, but also for anybody that Illinois Farm Bureau needs to kind of display and show what farmers are doing, especially to take care of what they have and how they're doing it.
00:09:58:01 - 00:10:01:16
Hailey Hennenfent
And kind of that data point that's not necessarily out there.
00:10:01:20 - 00:10:18:24
Todd Gleason
So I assume compaction is one of those things that most of the farmers in the county are interested in. A few of them are probably interested in, in the grazing functions of this, how you work with U of I to make sure that what you're getting back from them actually is easily consumable.
00:10:18:24 - 00:10:36:14
Todd Gleason
And what does that mean? Does it mean you show the seed mixes when they're put into the ground, when you terminate them? And what yield changes come from those functions? I'm not sure what you're looking for or what those young farmers are hoping that they might gain.
00:10:36:16 - 00:10:48:12
Hailey Hennenfent
That's everything we're looking for. And so that's we've got so much data and we've really documented this process from pictures to soil sampling, like I said, from testimonials from those that are involved.
00:10:48:12 - 00:11:02:09
Hailey Hennenfent
We've got all this data and that's where we're we are really looking to Giovani and his background to kind of help us get that out there in a perfect little booklet. That can answer those questions on a different set of levels for everyone.
00:11:02:12 - 00:11:19:09
Todd Gleason
On that note, Haley will turn to your colleagues in the southern part of the state, but will remind producers and others that are interested that the Knox County Farm Bureau, and you may contact them, will hold in Illinois, nutrients stewardship Field Day on the 12th day of April from ten to noon, rain or shine.
00:11:19:09 - 00:11:40:28
Todd Gleason
And that Giovani Preza-Fontes will be on hand there to answer your questions, along with Rachel Curry, who's a watershed quality outreach associate and helps to put this program together. Now let's turn our attention to those counties in the south eastern part of the state. We'll start with you, Kacie Haag, Lawrence County. Can you tell me where that is exactly?
00:11:41:01 - 00:12:03:28
Kacie Haag
So Lawrence County actually borders Indiana. We are right across the river from Vincennes, Indiana, and Olney is about 20 miles west of that. We are on the Wabash River as well as the Embarras River. They both run through Lawrence County and Richland County. So, we focus on those watersheds.
00:12:04:00 - 00:12:09:23
Todd Gleason
Kenzie Zwilling there in Richland County. What kinds of things have you done through these grant programs in the past?
00:12:09:23 - 00:12:31:21
Kenzie Zwilling
So we've had a long history with working with nutrient stewardship in our area. The Wabash Valley area works great with our other counties to do projects throughout the years. And in 2021, we actually partnered with Lawrence County Farm Bureau to host a cover crop field day, which is in the Embarras watershed. And we did it close to the Embarras River, which is actually really cool.
00:12:31:24 - 00:12:42:09
Kenzie Zwilling
It was made possible by nutrients Stewardship grant that we received. The cover crop field day consisted of topical experts and a farmer panel to better educate our members on soil health.
00:12:42:13 - 00:13:00:27
Todd Gleason
So the two of you, can we talk a little bit about this Embarras River watershed and, what issues there are, what things have been corrected are in the process of being corrected and how engaged your farmers are in the watershed itself and protecting it.
00:13:00:27 - 00:13:06:13
Todd Gleason
And I suppose either of you can take it up. But, Kacie, maybe we'll start with you in Lawrence County.
00:13:06:13 - 00:13:21:29
Kacie Haag
We actually have really engaged members in our counties. We, focus a lot on the Embarras but, a lot of our farmers, they they have a lot of ground that's right next to the river. And that, I mean, they've got a lot of erosion problems.
00:13:21:29 - 00:13:55:13
Kacie Haag
And, a lot of what happens up north affects them as the water comes down. So we, as of right now, we don't have any programs going on, but we, always are looking for new ways to keep our members engaged because they are so active in the the program and are interested in learning more about how to become better stewards of the land and learning more about how to, manage what they have and, make it better for the future.
00:13:55:15 - 00:14:18:27
Todd Gleason
I know that the Wabash has had issues. You talked a little bit about the Embarras but the Wabash itself has had issues within the last decade, to where it floods. And then actually, as part of an erosion issue, it will change its channel. And I suppose that's really something that producers on both sides of the state line worry about often.
00:14:18:29 - 00:14:48:09
Kacie Haag
Yes, I agree with that. We've had I know in 2008 the levees broke and there was a huge flood where we held our stewardship field day, was actually under water. So during that day, we got to see pictures of the the farm under water, which was really cool to see. I mean, obviously not for the farmer, but it was, it was interesting to know that, you know, that area is affected.
00:14:48:09 - 00:15:00:10
Kacie Haag
We were standing in the the exact place, the exact location that is affected by the flooding. So, we we learned a lot about that. And that was it was really interesting to see.
00:15:00:12 - 00:15:15:15
Todd Gleason
And then Kenzie in Richland County, you'd be dealing with the Embarras, the what is it that you have as primary issues and how engaged are your producers in trying to solve those?
00:15:15:17 - 00:15:36:06
Kenzie Zwilling
Yeah. So, our county doesn't fully is not fully engulfed with the watershed of the Embarras. But the northeast corner is and those farmers in that area are always actively wanting to learn more about it. And we can give them the resources and education that they need to be better stewards of the land, like Kacie was saying.
00:15:36:08 - 00:15:41:06
Kenzie Zwilling
And, just to positively change their farms.
00:15:41:09 - 00:15:46:25
Todd Gleason
And coming back to you, Hailey, there in Knox County, which watersheds are you involved with?
00:15:46:28 - 00:15:50:06
Hailey Hennenfent
We are in the Mississippi North Central watershed.
00:15:50:08 - 00:15:55:18
Todd Gleason
And so which which creeks and rivers, do you have to deal with that feed into the Mississippi?
00:15:55:18 - 00:16:00:16
Hailey Hennenfent
Yes. So for us, we're kind of a small part of the majority of the big watershed.
00:16:00:16 - 00:16:23:09
Hailey Hennenfent
We're only about 7%. But we specifically in Knox County here deal with Cedar Creek. And so that's actually a creek that actually runs through Galesburg, which is kind of our, you know, biggest city here and definitely more, urban compared to the rest of the county. And so it's kind of a balance of working with, you know, the creek within the city as well as in the rural parts of the county.
00:16:23:12 - 00:16:28:00
Todd Gleason
I mean, does your county Farm Bureau have plans to continue or growing with the current or past projects?
00:16:28:07 - 00:16:43:06
Hailey Hennenfent
Yeah, we do. So we kind of started this project, through the Nutrient Stewardship grant, along with the other counties that are in it, including Henry, Mercer, Ward, Henderson and Hancock. And so we've been working with them. But this project kind of started during Covid.
00:16:43:06 - 00:17:02:27
Hailey Hennenfent
And so we've had a kind of a rough time getting it started and getting all of our people together to talk about strategy. But we've been really, lucky to work with Rachel Curry through U of extension, and she's been able to get us the data and kind of some of the highlights of this project to get it to our members, to kind of understand what our process is here.
00:17:02:29 - 00:17:11:18
Todd Gleason
And I'll return now to you, Raelynn Parmely, Farm Bureau. What are the future goals for the Nutrient Stewardship Grant program, in your opinion?
00:17:11:18 - 00:17:33:15
Raelynn Parmely
Yeah. So great question, Todd. And, you know, these examples that Hailey, Kacie, and Kenzie have all shared? It's also a really great set of examples, really, of how we're using the Nutrient Stewardship Grant program to also support things like the 319 grant projects that we're partners on.
00:17:33:15 - 00:18:11:01
Raelynn Parmely
So in both of these instances in Knox and then Richland, Lawrence County, they saw that they had the interest to support the 319 grant program that we're partners on and more or less use the funds and the resources and the Nutrient Stewardship Grant program to help get information out to members. So, you know, looking forward, I see continued interest from our counties to use the grant program to, you know, of course, support the 319 grants where they pop up and RCPP
00:18:11:03 - 00:18:41:07
Raelynn Parmely
Also supporting locally LED projects is a top goal of the program. If county farm Bureaus and members are having questions about what can we do about nutrient stewardship, we want to help them develop programs that answer those questions and provide localized information about those questions. And really, you know, our my team back at Illinois Farm Bureau, our direct partners on all of these projects.
00:18:41:09 - 00:19:06:24
Raelynn Parmely
So as long as we have continued interest locally and we continue to have counties that are asking great questions and developing great local partnerships to answer those questions, in my mind, that's really, you know, the top goal here. Continue supporting our members as they answer their questions about nutrient loss and develop programs and practices that answer those questions.
00:19:06:26 - 00:19:14:02
Todd Gleason
In that vein, if a farmer member has an idea as it's related to a potential project, what should they do?
00:19:14:09 - 00:19:39:09
Raelynn Parmely
Really, it does start with a conversation with your local county Farm bureau. That might be a conversation with the manager directly, or it could be one where you start talking with the local board. That's going to be the first thing I recommend to anyone, because ultimately the County Farm Bureau and typically a manager is the one who will be the one to apply.
00:19:39:11 - 00:20:23:25
Raelynn Parmely
Once they've had those conversations, they the next couple of steps could be, you know, thinking about, do we want to bring in any sort of local partners? Some of our counties work with soil and water, agronomists, you name it. They've worked with a lot of really interesting and like, beneficial folks throughout the years. But really, you know, the other piece I'm always going to encourage is that they come back to us at Illinois Farm Bureau, my team, at any point in the year, even if grant projects are already ongoing, we can meet with that county and the members to talk about what they want to do and really help them plan for a very
00:20:23:25 - 00:20:27:05
Raelynn Parmely
successful project, and then grant application.
00:20:27:08 - 00:20:52:26
Todd Gleason
That’s Raelynn Parmely, she's the environmental program manager for the Illinois Farm Bureau, joined us on this 51st episode of the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction podcast, along with county managers Kacie Haag, Kenzie Zwilling, and Hailey Hennenfent from Lawrence, Richland and Knox counties, respectively. The program was produced in conjunction with Illinois Extension Watershed Outreach associates Rachel Curry and Nicole Haverback.
00:20:52:26 - 00:21:08:09
Todd Gleason
If you'd like to learn more about section 319 non source point pollution grants, you can always do that by searching them out. Just look for section 319 grants and EPA. I'm University of Illinois extensions. Todd Gleason.