Ten years into the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, Illinois is still making progress despite challenges such as changing weather patterns, says Megan Dwyer, Illinois Corn Director of Conservation and Nutrient Stewardship.
“As time goes on, I would say we are learning more about how nutrients move and how we’re seeing some of this nutrient loss,” Dwyer says. “At the same time, we’re not living in a static testing lab—we’re in the real world.”
The Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy is a science-based plan to reduce nutrients in waterways. While farmers have incorporated new conservation practices, more intense rainfall events have made controlling nutrient runoff increasingly difficult.
“When you look at nutrient loss as a whole across the entire Mississippi River Basin and you incorporate things like flow data, it looks very promising,” Dwyer says. “We are making strides. We are making improvements. There’s more to be done—we’re learning.”
To reach runoff reduction goals, ongoing research and practical on-farm adjustments will be essential.
