We partner with farmers all around the state. Read their stories and find connections in your area by clicking on the regions below.
With deep ties to Iowa agriculture, Andrea Benton and Ingrid Gronstal are new landowners excited to learn more about farming. From their great grandparents who farmed during the Great Depression to growing up in Carroll and playing with friends on farms, the sisters have an appreciation for Iowa’s agricultural landscape and a strong desire to protect soil and water.
Read MoreWhiterock Conservancy is a non-profit land trust of 5,500 acres located near Coon Rapids along the Middle Raccoon River. Staff work together to fulfill the Conservancy’s mission to actively manage conservation land, to demonstrate sustainable farming practices and to keep the land open to the public.
For in-field practices, the Conservancy has incorporated no-till and cover crops on almost every crop acre. The Conservancy uses both single species and mixtures of cover crops, including cereal rye, oats, red clover, tillage radish and Austrian winter pea.
When Chris Henning left her family’s farm in Jefferson in 1965, she had no intention of returning. She was 18, and as the oldest of 7 sisters, she knew how to drive a tractor and do any farm chore from an early age. When she did return to Greene County in 1991 with her late husband Max, their idea was to live in the country but not farm. As fate would have it, they did purchase a severely depleted piece of land which Chris has spent much of the last three decades nursing back to health.
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