Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced that the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, working with Iowa’s 100 soil and water conservation districts and other partners, broke a record for conservation and water quality practice adoption in Iowa during the last fiscal year. Department-wide, there was $21.86 million in total cost-share paid, which leveraged a total spending of $52.67 million in practice implementation. Last year, $18.79 million and $47.89 million were the respective totals. This represents a growth of more than $3 million over last year in total cost-share funding delivered. Ten years ago, in fiscal year 2013, the totals were $8.24 million and $22.85 million, respectively. There was also a record number of practices funded this year at 6,751, up from the previous year’s 5,886, which had also been a record. The new record totals of cost-share investments and practices do not take into account all other conservation and water quality funding that is paid for by the farmer and landowner, other government entities, and other public and private partners. They do not factor in other programs at the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship that also advance conservation and water quality efforts, including the wetlands program.