He moved his feedlot for better city water


Project name: Rock Valley Well Watershed size: 13,000 acres Year began: 2006 Year Complete: 2008 SWCD Contact: Sioux Phone: (712) 737-2253
Purpose: Improve water quality Soil and Water Conservation District(s): Sioux Other partners: Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Iowa State University Extension, USDA Farm Service Agency, City of Rock Valley

Rock River bottom in an area of underlying sands. The city’s wells are shallow and have consistently tested above the acceptable levels of 10 parts per million of nitrate nitrogen.

As part of a watershed project to protect wellheads that supply water for the city, with assistance from the project, one farmer agreed to move a cattle feedlot that was within a hundred yards of the well. Mark Vant Hul seeded the abandoned feedlot area to native grasses and moved the feedlot several miles from the wells. The new feedlot now has total containment of manure.

Other practices in the Rogg Creek watershed that are reducing nitrogen in the water supply, as part of the Rock Valley Wellhead Protection Project, include:

wellhead protection (seeding down native grasses in any cropland located within 2,000 feet of a well.
establishing filter strips and riparian buffers along Rogg Creek and its tributaries.
establishing grassed waterways in the Rogg Creek watershed.
building animal waste management systems to control manure runoff from livestock operations.
practicing nutrient management on farmlands to reduce risk of nitrate runoff.
practicing proper fertilizer management on lawns of residents in Rock Valley.

Abandoned Feedlot

The Rock Valley Wellhead Project assisted a local cattleman in moving a feedlot away from a wellhead that supplied water for the city of Rock Valley to ensure better water for the city. The abandoned feedyard (top) was originally only a few hundred feet north of the wellhead (above), but the owner voluntarily relocated the feedlot to a new site (below) that was several miles away from any of city’s wellheads. IDALS technician Dwayne Cleveringa was among those involved in the project.

Dwayne Cleveringa

One in a series of summaries of watershed projects in Iowa carried out by local conservation districts, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Division of Soil Conservation, and other partners.

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Mailing Address: IDALS, Wallace State Office Building, 502 E. 9th Street, Des Moines, IA 50319: PH: 515-281-5321