If there's one thing most farmers hate, it's someone else trying to tell them how to farm their land. The Iowa Soybean Association — a producer led organization — is attempting to help farmers stay one step ahead of the curve when it comes any future regulation by gathering data that helps farmers make management decisions that are both profitable for their own operation, and friendly to the environment. On Tuesday, the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) got a major leg up on that goal in its announcement of an $800,000 grant from the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) that will fund a 30-month, in-depth study of northcentral Iowa watersheds. The grant and watershed project will build on work already underway by the ISA in collecting data from a number of points in the Boone River watershed. ISA officials said the goal is to gather accurate scientific data and then form performance-based recommendations from that information.