Bluffton council will learn tonight about a grant pursued by the Blanchard River Watershed Partnership involving farmers in the Lower Riley Creek Watershed.

The grant was recently submitted to the Great Lakes Sediment and Nutrient Reduction Program. Funding is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The grant’s purpose is to demonstrate that the use of cover crops, soil testing and conservation tillage will not lower crop yields.

According to the grant outline: Farmers in the Lower Riley Creek Watershed (roughly between Bluffton and Pandora) who participate will have their soil tested and will plant cover crops in October.

When results of the soil tests are revealed students from Heidelberg University will place the data into a Nutrient Track Tool.

In the meantime, farmers will complete a spreadsheet indicating the crop intended to be planted the following year, the projected yield for the crop and the amount of fertilizer expected to be applied.

The grant proposal continues: The research team will provide farmers with a cost benefit analysis for the upcoming year. The purpose of the project is to demonstrate to farmers that the utilization of cover crops, soil testing and conservation tillage would not lower crop yields.