By Nina Gage, VAAFM
Are there one or two fields where you forgot to plant a buffer last year? As you get out in the fields this spring, don’t forget to plant or maintain your perennially vegetated buffers!
The Required Agricultural Practices (RAPs) require 10 feet of perennial buffer on ditches, and 25 feet on surface water. Buffers required through the RAPs can be harvested, although you cannot spread manure or other agricultural waste in the buffers. You can only apply fertilizer or compost for purposes of establishment and maintenance, consistent with nutrient recommendations from soil tests.
While the RAPs are new to Vermont, buffer requirements in Vermont have existed since the Accepted Agricultural Practices passed in 1996, and there is an even longer history of buffers on agricultural land. Even though agricultural land as far back as 19th century Europe often contained natural buffers such as riparian forests and hedges, the term “agricultural buffer” was not commonly used until the 1970’s. During early settlement times in the United States, natural buffer areas were left to define property boundaries or contain livestock. It was the mid-1800s when the intensification of agricultural production resulted in many of these remaining natural buffers being replaced with annual crops. As soil erosion swept across the country with the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s, public interest in conservation increased and the Soil Conservation Service was created in 1935. Today more and more states are setting minimum buffer requirements to filter runoff from agricultural fields. For instance, legislation passed in Minnesota in 2015 requiring 50-foot average buffer widths on agricultural cropland.
While you may be reluctant about planting your buffers to meet the regulatory requirements, remember there are a ton of other benefits to planting buffers on your farm. For instance, buffers;
- Can be used for haying or grazing, however they should not be used as a travel lane for livestock or equipment.
- Keep farm machinery away from steep banks,
- Serve as a turning area while planting crop fields,
- Provide ground cover and plants to filter sediment and nutrients from runoff,
- Hold soil in place preventing erosion,
- Help reduce storm water velocity and may help with flood damage control,
- Can prevent invasive plants from spreading along waterways,
- Can promote habitat for pollinator species like bees which some crops may rely on, and
- Create a highly visible sign of good land stewardship!
Everyone understands the tough farm economics going into this season, so the Agency wants to make sure you know about all the financial assistance programs available to you. There are three methods of receiving financial assistance for planting buffers.
1. A new State program, called the Grassed Waterway and Filter Strip (GWFS) Program can provide 90% of the implementation costs for filter strips, or buffers, along surface water or ditches. If you are willing to make your buffer wider to meet a soils and slope-derived recommended buffer width, you can even receive a one-time incentive payment of $500/acre. Through this program, you can harvest your filter strip for forage and can opt to go even wider than minimums in order to create “something worth haying” or a filter strip better matched to the farm’s equipment.
2. Through the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA NRCS) Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), you can receive cost share to install a filter strip adjacent to a waterway. Through this program, you can harvest the filter strip. NRCS planners are required to analyze soils and slope with a “Filter Strip tool” to determine the minimum width necessary.
3. Through the State/FSA Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), you can receive a per acre incentive payment, an annual rental payment, and 90% cost share to remove land from production and install a vegetative filter strip. Under CREP, the Filter Strip cannot be harvested, but should be brush hogged periodically to maintain as grass.
The alternative to financial assistance programs is to plant your required buffer strips on your own. Lots of farms have installed their own buffers to meet the RAPs, but have fit them to their land, their own way, with some planting much larger than the required buffer width in order to make it easier to hay it. Planting your buffers can work for your farm and help improve water quality!