The mission of the Orange County SWCD is to provide leadership and assistance in the proper use of soil, water and related natural resources in Orange County, Indiana.
In keeping with this mission, Orange County SWCD seeks out grant funding each year to provide conservation assistance to our local landowners. In 2012, the SWCD was able to provide cost share for the sowing of winter cover crops on Orange County cropland. Cover crops help hold the soil in place over the winter months when a cash crop is not growing. This living root over the winter also helps with better soil health for the soil itself. The SWCD provided cost share to twenty-one Orange County landowners, for a total of nearly 1,200 acres of cover crops installed through the program!
The SWCD also partnered with Byron Seeds to host a Cover Crop Field Day in November 2012. Byron Seeds donated nearly 7 acres worth of seed for a demonstartion plot. The SWCD publicized the event well in advance and also reached out to the local Amish community. Nearly 40 people attended the field day on an unusually cold and snowy day in November. Many of these were from the local Amish community. The SWCD has continued to follow up with producers attending the field day and also hosted a Soil Health Conference the following spring to provide greater education to a group of folks from the field day who were very eager to learn.
The SWCD continues to seek out new funding every year and has funding to continue a cover crop cost share program for at least one more year.