News
Mississippi farmer welcomes visit from Iowans
It’s being called the “Iowa-Mississippi Farmer to Farmer Exchange”.
A group of Iowa farmers and ag leaders travelled south this week to meet with some of their Mississippi counterparts to discuss the issue of hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. The goal of the exchange is to develop relationships between ag leaders in both states and to share information and technologies that will help address the hypoxic area—or “dead zone”—in the Gulf. Farmer Paul Dees of Greeneville, Mississippi, says he welcomed the visit from the Iowans.
“Between the two groups, we’ll get an exchange of ideas,” Dees says, “but we’re also hoping to figure out a way to scale things up, so that it isn’t just the Mississippi Delta and parts of Iowa that are implementing these best management practices—but the whole Mississippi River Basin.”
Dees raises corn, soybeans and rice in northwest Mississippi. As to what steps he has taken to reduce runoff, Dees says he’s working to reduce the amount of water used in rice production.
“To use water efficiently in our rice production system, we’ve put a lot of our fields on zero-grade which uses markedly less water than an unformed field where you have contour levies—and even less water than a field that has been formed, but still uses straight levies,” says Dees.
Dees says he has also planted buffer strips on several areas of his farm. Dees and the rest of the Mississippi delegation will make their visit to Iowa in early July.
Additional audio: Iowa ag secretary Bill Northey (7 min MP3)
Add Comment