Agriculture Program
We are now accepting applications for the 2025 Precision Phosphorus Reduction Program.
Follow the buttons below to download the application and program guidebook. Contact us at [email protected] for questions, concerns or assistance applying.
Are you located in the Lower Thames Valley? Visit the link to see if your location applies to farm grant opportunities with LTVCA.
Want to learn more about water health? Find out more about phosphorus and how we’re monitoring it in the Lower Thames Valley.
Farm grant funding details:
$30 / acre: not harvested.
$10 / acre: harvested / grazed.
Maximum Grant:
Up to $15,000 per farm business.
How does the farm grant process work?
The Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority works with farms of all sizes to improve soil health and water quality.
Hereโs how our farm grant process works:
- R1. Review program guidebook.
- R2. Obtain an application form by downloading a PDF copy or email: [email protected].
- R3. Complete and submit the application form by mail or by email.
- R4. LTVCA staff will review your application and determine approval status.
- R5. Pre-Approved projects will receive a letter of confirmation stating your project can move forward.
- R6. Projects will be verified with an onsite inspection ensuring requirements are met.
- R7. A final approval letter will be issued after site audit and submission of required documentation.
- R8. Payment will be issued to applicants on a scheduled funding basis.
What are BMPs anyways โฆ and what do they do?
Best Management Practices, or BMPs are farming practices and techniques that improve crop yield and quality while protecting soil, water, and air quality so you can continue farming for generations to come.
Itโs a true win for farmers and the environment. You can reduce your expensive inputs over time while maintaining or even improving your crop yield, all while helping to clean up waterways, improve soil health, and support biodiversity.
The LTVCA is offering farm grants for Best Management Practices.
1. Cover Crops
Planting ground cover on farmland during non-growing seasons helps to improve soil structure, reduces soil erosion, and enhances phosphorus action in the soil.
2. Crop Plan & Soil Testing
We assist farms in soil testing and create a plan from the results to apply the right inputs at the right time, rate, and place to improve soil fertility and make inputs more effective.
3.Alternative Phosphorus Application Methods
Get phosphorus to crops exactly when and where it will be most beneficial, especially for crops like wheat, corn, and soybeans.
4. Reduced Tillage
Also known as no-till or strip-till farming, this technique leaves crop residue in the fields which improves soil health, reduces soil erosion and run-off, and helps with soil moisture. Less tilling means lower fuel and equipment costs.
5. Erosion Control Structures
These professionally designed and engineered structures reduce soil erosion and conserve phosphorus and water for better growing conditions.
6. Buffer Strips
Buffer strips are a type of erosion control structure made up of strips of grass, shrubs, or trees planted along water bodies, field edges, or slopes. They slow down runoff and act like a filter, prevents flash floods, and stabilizes streambanks.
7. Wind Breaks
Planting trees in a row can stop topsoil from being blown away, reduce wind damage and act like a shelter for fragile crops like corn, soybeans, and vegetables, and reduce energy and heating costs for farm buildings and houses.
8. Innovative Practices & Projects
Do you have new concepts that have the potential to reduce the loss of nutrients from your fields? Farmers can submit a proposal for grants on your unique project to improve soil health and water quality.
Phosphorus Education
What is Phosphorus?
It is a valuable nutrient in plant growth and imperative to the agriculture sector to provide healthy fields and higher yields, however when in excess it can become harmful to the environment.
What are point and non-point sources of phosphorus?
Phosphorus enters the environment mainly through two sources: point sources and non-point sources.
Point Sources: These are distinct, identifiable sources, such as effluent discharged from industrial or sewage treatment plants. They are common in urban areas and can be easily measured.
Non-Point Sources: Non-point sources of phosphorus come from a wide variety of sources over a large spread area, making it more difficult to measure. Non-point sources tend to be the most common in our watershed with agriculture making up 85% of the land use in the region.
Non-point source examples:
- surface runoff
- subsurface tile drainage
- erosion
How does phosphorus enter waterways?
If excess nutrients from these fertilizers or manure are washed off the land in a rainstorm or during spring snow melt, they are carried into local watercourses and can have negatives effects on the ecosystem, such as causing algae blooms.
Phosphorus bound to soil particles (particulate phosphorus) accounts for a large portion of the phosphorus carried by surface runoff.
How does LTVCA monitor water quality?
Additional sampling occurs during rain or weather events to monitor conditions. The change in stream water quality over the course of a stormwater runoff event is visible in the samples collected at 2-hour intervals by the high frequency automatic sampler.
Noticeable changes in water can be seen while comparing samples from the beginning or the peak of the stormwater runoff event. As the event develops, water becomes progressively cloudier due to the nutrient-rich sediment that has been washed off the land into the stream. After the storm peaks and the streamflow normalizes, the water returns to a clearer state.
What is the water tested for?
LTVCAโs field technicians monitor on-site, collecting data on:
- water temperature
- pH
- dissolved oxygen
- turbidity
- conductivity
Samples are shipped to a lab for further precise analysis of parameters such as but not limited to, total suspended solids (TSS), total phosphorous (TP), dissolved reactive phosphorous (DRP), nitrates and ammonia.
