Water Quality a Priority for Farmers and Ranchers

By Samantha Ayoub

Water is a crucial resource for farmers and ranchers. Beyond keeping their crops, forage and livestock healthy and growing, the water used on the farm is also part of their families’ and communities’ water supply. This Market Intel details the many ways farmers and ranchers  protect water quality.

Water Conservation Practices

There are several practices farmers and ranchers use to preserve water quality, with a focus on improving land’s water retention, keeping water and nutrients in a field, and reducing runoff.

Conservation Tillage and Year-Round Ground Cover

 Conservation tillage and cover cropping, often discussed together as soil conservation practices, not only protect against erosion but also improve soil water retention and reduce runoff, helping keep water and nutrients such as fertilizer in the field. Reducing soil disturbances from tillage prevents loose soil and water from sitting on top of dense, compacted layers below the surface that restrict water filtration and keeps past crop residue on the field. Conservation tillage also creates barriers for rainwater and any runoff, trapping water and sediment on the field to absorb into the soil.

Planting crops year-round, whether traditional cover crops or two cash crops, reduces exposed soil and allows the soil to continue to absorb nutrients that may otherwise runoff into water sources.

The use of both conservation tillage and cover cropping continues to increase. Conservation tillage, including no-till, was used on over 202 million acres, more than half of all cropland, in 2022. In 2023, over 37.8 million acres were enrolled in programs to receive either financial or technical assistance from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) to implement or improve no-till, making up 3.5% of all acres enrolled in NRCS programs. Just under 30 million acres nationwide were also receiving assistance for reduced tillage, 2.7% of NRCS enrollment.