Jason and Melissa Schutz own and operate a beef farm in Boyceville, Wisconsin.
In 2016, Melissa attended an informational meeting on a local initiative to improve the water quality in the Wilson and Annis Creek watersheds.
The Schutz’s operation consists of 50 cow-calf pairs split between two locations, an upper pasture and lower pasture.
The upper pasture utilizes a groundwater spring to fill a watering tank that animals drink out of year round.
The outlet pond is where the lower pasture watered with continuous access.
During the spring, summer, and fall, the animals utilized the pond for drinking and cooling.
When temperatures dropped below freezing in the winter months, Jason broke the ice daily for the animals to drink.
The local NRCS office was able to offer Jason and Melissa technical and financial assistance through the Environmental Quality Incentive Program to improve surface water quality.
With careful planning to meet Jason and Melissa’s objectives, the NRCS was able to capture the overflow from the upper pasture tank in a waterline, and install a new watering facility in the lower pasture, greatly improving the water quality.
“This is an excellent project, simple, but very effective in improving the water quality within Annis Creek; the cattle have dry feet and manure is not being deposited in the stream,” stated John Sippl, NRCS District Conservationist.