Conservation plans document that no-till is used on an additional 3,500 acres in the watershed compared to 1990. ICM ICM is a systems approach to crop production and protection tailored to each producer's goals and resources. ICM seeks to maximize efficient use of inputs while maintaining or improving profitability. Sampling by soil map unit and realistic yield goals helped reduce fertilizer use on a number of fields, lowering both expenses and potential nutrient runoff. The project's ICM program includes weekly crop scouting, which provides valuable information the staff uses to make pest and field management recommendations.
Producers then treat crops only when and where pest populations exceed economic threshold levels.
The producer was ready to treat because corn borers were a problem in neighboring fields. Financial incentives to move toward more sustainable nutrient and pest management programs, conservation tillage, and contour farming have been available to cooperators since 1992 through the ASCS Water Quality Incentive Project. Grove Lake Watershed Crop land in the watershed treated to control erosion to 5 tons or less per acre per year. Cooperative Extension Service, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, and the United States Department of Agriculture cooperating. Robert M. Anderson, Jr., director, Ames, Iowa.