Farmer Partners

The Smeltzer Farm, located southeast of Fort Dodge, is a multi-faceted farm containing almost every conservation structure and practice. From streambank stabilization to terraces, grassed waterways, a bioreactor, saturated buffer, restored oxbow, and farming practice demonstrations including no-till, strip-till and cover crops, the Smeltzer farm serves as a learning tool for farmers. Visitors can come out to see how things are implemented, how the crops are growing and can get pointers from the members of the Smeltzer advisory board. The county naturalist, NRCS conservationist and ISU Extension specialists all work together to make this farm successful.

Dan uses vertical tillage on his corn and soybean acres and also no-till on his corn-on-corn acres. He went to vertical tillage to deal with the high amounts of residue on his land. He has worked with Iowa State University on a number of research projects, and is one of the first farmer partners with Iowa Learning Farms.

Mark farms just under 1000 acres in Badger Iowa, about 15 minutes north of Fort Dodge. As a young man, he farmed alongside his father and grandfather, who abandoned the moldboard in the 60s. Continuing his grandfather’s legacy, Mark switched to minimum tillage 20 years ago and cover crops in the last 10 years. He admits that when he first implemented cover crops, there were a few years when he “got burned by not listening to how the older farmers made it work.”