PEORIA, Ill. — A coalition of Illinois agriculture groups are sponsoring the first Illinois Agricultural Retail Survey with the goal of quantifying farmers and retailers’ commitment to the tenets of the 2015 Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy (NLRS). 2023 will be the inaugural year of the survey. Around 150 of the 600 ag retail facilities across Illinois will be randomly selected to participate every year, with liaisons traveling to selected retailers in the months of January through March to conduct the survey.

“This survey is all about the NLRS,” said Kevin “KJ” Johnson, executive director of the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association (IFCA), which is joining with the Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Corn, Illinois Soybean, Illinois Pork and Illinois Beef producers associations to encourage ag retailers and farmers to participate in the voluntary survey. “We are trying to get ahead of things with a new NLRS coming soon.”

Recent studies identified 82 percent of the anhydrous ammonia contributing to the Gulf Hypoxic Zone as originating from agricultural nutrient field runoff. IFCA and the coalition partners will direct the results of the survey to the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency with the hope of inclusion in the next NLRS, which will be issued by 2025. The goal of the survey is to continue to fend off intrusive government regulation while fostering stewardship in nutrient usage among all Illinois farmers. 

“Why are we taking this on? We can’t defend the numbers; they are what they are. What we are trying to do is to quantify what we are doing and how much we are keeping out of the waterways,” Johnson told farmers attending the 2023 IFCA Convention in downtown Peoria on Tuesday, January 17. 

The IFCA leader is also asking fertilizer retailers to encourage the use of nitrogen (N) fertilizer inhibitors (chemical compounds that protect against ammonia volatilization) by applicators in order to reduce fall field nutrient runoff. He estimates that 45 percent of N applications made on Illinois’ 11 million acres of corn in 2021 were made in the fall. The survey will poll farmers on their use of an inhibitor when making fall applications.

“We know that the average N loss on a farm is 25 pounds, but with the use of an inhibitor that loss averages 90 percent less,” Johnson said. “By learning how many of you are using inhibitors we can better calculate how much N we are keeping from going downstream. Our calculations show that if a greater percentage of Illinois farmers would use inhibitors, we could keep nine million less pounds of nutrients from going downriver.”

Cover crop usage can also contribute greatly to field nutrient retainment. The survey will seek to update the amount of acreage farmers plant in cover crops each fall. “We’re going to break this down to crop reporting districts. If there’s a target area that we think needs worked on, we can break that down,” said Johnson.

In addition, fertilizer retailers in Illinois will be offering soil sampling education and resources while encouraging farmers to submit soil sample results to NREC, the Nutrient Research and Education Council, through their retail location. 

The survey is entirely anonymous and provides an opt out clause for the grower, according to Johnson. The confidential responses and data collected at the county levels will be forwarded to Iowa State University, where researchers will collate the data for issuance to the NLRS. Letters were sent to the first 150 fertilizer retail businesses asked to participate in the survey in mid-January.

Johnson promised the ag retailers and farmers in attendance that he would offer Illinois Ag Retail Survey updates to those attending the IFCA Convention in coming years.

“We ask that retail members participate given how important it is for us to have a voice when it comes to nutrient loss in our state,” reads a news release issued by the survey coalition. “As 2025 nitrogen and phosphorus loss reduction goals near, there is increased pressure to provide accurate measurables related to practice adoption outlined in the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy. This new survey allows for our industry to accumulate this data and help tell our story.”