A project just getting underway offers a chance to address two issues that affect the state of Iowa every year: water quality and the cost of fertilizer.

It is called the Nitrogen Soil Sampling Project. It involves the state Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, the Iowa Nutrient Research & Education Council and Iowa State University in Ames.

Because of the great positive impact it can have, we believe it is worthy of support by Iowa’s farmers.

Over the three-year run of this project, researchers will study the year-to-year variability in nitrogen availability and evaluate how residual soil nitrogen influences on-farm nitrogen management decisions. To put it another way, the scientists will be looking at how much nitrogen, a key ingredient in fertilizers, is in the soil and how that impacts how farmers decide how to use fertilizer.

This is important for water quality because excess nitrogen gets washed out of fields and into streams and rivers, where it creates pollution problems. Everyone talks about doing something to make Iowa’s water quality better. This project will provide some data upon which to base decisions about water quality strategies.

No farmer wants to spend more than they have to on fertilizer and that is especially true this year, when the price of crop inputs seems to be going up faster than a NASA rocket. The Nitrogen Soil Sampling Project will provide data that farmers can use to apply just the right amount of fertilizer, which will save them money in the long run.

Farmers in Boone, Calhoun, Greene, Hamilton and Webster counties are being invited to enroll in the project now. That invitation will be extended to farmers in other counties later this year.

We encourage farmers to sign up for something that can improve Iowa’s water and save them some money at the same time.