Planting for another year into dry soil, farmers know all too well the importance of water.
Farmers are playing a role in conserving and protecting the quality of water along the eastern edge of South Dakota, and it’s making a difference, according to information presented at the Big Sioux Stewardship Summit April 16 and 17 in Sioux Falls.
Efforts to keep livestock waste and farm chemicals out of the Big Sioux River and its tributaries along the eastern edge of South Dakota include asking farmers to leave the land alongside river and stream banks untouched through most of the year.
Grass grows along the banks of Skunk Creek in this pasture west of Dell Rapids, S.D. It looks different from the muddy banks when it became the first land enrolled in the Seasonal Riparian Area Management program in 2013.
Tri-State Neighbor photo by Janelle Atyeo
That’s been the focus of the Seasonal Riparian Area Management (SRAM) program for the last 12 years. Farmers enroll land for 10 or 15 years and agree not to let their livestock graze from April through October. In return, they get a one-time payment of $100 to $140 per acre up front. Livestock can graze outside of the summer months, as long as a separate water source is available for them, and haying is allowed from June 15 to Sept. 15 each year.
Barry Berg, senior watershed project coordinator with the East Dakota Water Development District, gives and update on the Seasonal Riparian Area Management project during the Big Sioux Stewardship Summit in Sioux Falls April 17.
A structure captures stormwater from a southeastern Sioux Falls neighborhood. The steel shavings in the structure help clear E. coli and phosphate from the water.
Submitted photo
The city of Sioux Falls is piloting a new type of filtration developed by researchers at South Dakota State University (SDSU). It helped remove 44% of the E. coli and close to half of the phosphate that comes mostly from pet waste and lawn chemicals in one neighborhood, according to Troy Lambert, an environmental analyst for the city’s public works department.
Last spring, the city installed a filter system at a stormwater collection site off of South Sycamore Avenue on the east side of town. The foot-deep pit is filled with six inches of iron filings and steel slag that come from TJN Enterprises metal recycling in town and a manufacturer in Norfolk, Nebraska.
Recycling, reusing: Iowa project uses water collected from drain tile for irrigation
A project in Iowa is showing that recycling and reusing doesn’t apply just to bottles and cans; it can apply to water on farm fields, too.
In a pilot project in north central Iowa, runoff from drainage tile got another chance at nourishing crops. In a project of Iowa State University, Iowa Soybean Association, the Environmental Defense Fund and ISG Inc., water from drain tile was collected into a retention pond, stored, then pumped back onto the fields through an irrigation system.
A worker at Boadwine Farms cleans teats before milking begins.
Tri-State Neighbor photo by Janelle Atyeo
Dairies use an average of 45 gallons of water per cow per day, so recycling water is an important consideration.
Besides providing drinking water to the 2,400 milk cows at Boadwine Farms by Baltic, South Dakota, water is used to cool the milk, as required to prevent bacteria growth. From there, it cleans floors in the parlor and helps separate sand from manure so the sand can be used again for bedding.
