Rollout Ready: What to Know About H2Ohio

In 2024, Ashland County farmers will have their chance to take advantage of H2Ohio’s agricultural cost-share opportunities beginning April 15. Our Ashland SWCD staff is excited to help bring this program to our farmers, and we’re committed to making sure you’re prepared to take advantage of this program and have clear expectations about what that’s going to look like.

H2Ohio’s expansion across the state is good news. The H2Ohio program and practices originated from different sectors of the agricultural industry coming together to develop a nutrient reduction plan for agriculture. Commodity groups, non-profit groups, government agencies and farmer leaders all came together and identified an array of practices designed to address phosphorus loss on farms in the WLEB and the impact of that loss on the highly publicized harmful algal blooms of Lake Erie.

One of the best parts about that collaboration is that it was led by voluntary conservation.. The agricultural component of the H2Ohio program is an industry-driven voluntary effort to document and verify our stewardship efforts. The better job we do in minimizing nutrient losses from farmland, the less likely restrictive regulation is to come to our area.

One key difference as H2Ohio rolls out statewide compared to the WLEB H2Ohio experience is the number of practices. For us, H2Ohio agricultural practices will be limited to nutrient management plan development for cropland. As the program expands in the future, having a nutrient management plan in place will be required for any additional practices, making nutrient management planning the foundation for all other H2Ohio opportunities. Cost-share for plan development will be $10/acre.

Up to 10,000 acres within Ashland County can be enrolled in H2Ohio, with a 750 acre maximum per producer. Applications will be approved on a first-come, first-serve basis, and our office is currently scheduling appointments for sign up the week of April 15. That limits participation this first year to right around 11% of Ashland County’s cropland acres, and we expect enrollment to fill quickly.

Farmers with livestock operations may be required to develop or more intensive Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan (CNMP) instead of a simpler Voluntary Nutrient Management Plan (VNMP). The threshold for requiring a CNMP is if your livestock producer over 350 tons or 100,000 gallons of manure/year. That’s not a lot of livestock; it would be as low as 25 lactating milk cows, 24 beef cows of 85 sows.

Livestock farmers with a CNMP that is already written or in place can work with our SWCD staff to use and update that plan as their nutrient management plan development; if you do not have a plan in place, you can contract with a technical service provider to write a CNMP for your operation to have in-place by mid-summer, or you may be dollars ahead to apply for cost share through the USDA office to develop a CNMP for your farm.

One question we’re frequently asked is if H2Ohio will require you to change the way you farm. You are not required to make changes to develop you nutrient management plan for this initial year of plan development. 

However, once your plan is developed, you become eligible to receive cost-share for implementing your plan. To be eligible for implementation dollars ($10/acre for flat rate fields and $15/acre for fields using variable rate nutrient applications), you will have to follow that plan and not exceed Tri-State Nutrient application requirements.

Ready to sign up? Call the Ashland SWCD office to schedule and appointment with Katie Eikleberry or myself for the week of April 15. It’s a busy time of year we know, so we are committed to getting you in and out of our office in 30 minutes or less for sign up.

To help keep that schedule, producers will need to being with them an email address unique to each enrolling farm or entity, basic contact/address information, and shape files of your fields. Those shape files can be brought in on a USB drive or can be imported using your MyJohnDeere or Fieldview login information (so bring those, too). If you don’t have access to those, contact the Farm Service Agency office. They can email you the shape files you use for crop reporting and you can email them to us directly at h2ohio@ashalndcounty.org

Our staff will initiate your contract that day, and you’ll sign your contract and lock in your acres before leaving the office that day.

Questions? Feel free to reach out to myself of Katie at 419-281-7645 for enrollment.