We partner with farmers all around the state. Read their stories and find connections in your area by clicking on the regions below.
Joel and Linda Zwiefel are well-known in Northwest Iowa for their farming innovations. Located in rural Fenton, Palo Alto County, they strip-tilled continuous corn for over 10 years. They have seen increased yields, better water infiltration and reduced soil erosion with strip-till. Recently Joel switched to vertical tillage to coordinate with his planter. Joel says that the "vertical tillage tool works 1-1/2 inches maximum into soil depth to prepare for planting."
Read MoreTom Wagner is a farmer in rural Primghar, O’Brien County. Tom and his brother, Jim, grow corn and soybeans, and have a hog finishing operation. Tom and his family have always been conservation-minded. He believes agriculture is our nation’s greatest asset and that our soil is farming’s top resource. “My brother, Jim, and I want our farm to be productive for years to come and resource conservation will do that.”
Read MoreMark Ingwersen, Spirit Lake, has been a Soil and Water Conservation District Commissioner for over 25 years for Dickinson County. He has served the Conservation Districts of Iowa as state vice president in the past. He is a farmer living near the Iowa Great Lakes, which allows him to approach water and soil quality from three different aspects.
Read MorePaul Kassel farms in Clay County and was an ISU Extension Field Agronomist in Northwest Iowa for many years before retiring in 2021. Living just 20 miles from the farm where he grew up, his father, a Soil and Water District Commissioner, instilled Paul’s conservation ethic early. Paul added to his conservation education and attended Iowa State University, where he received his undergraduate and master’s degree in agronomy. Today on the farm, Paul grows corn and no-till soybeans, putting a cover crop on in the fall to overwinter.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreDan 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.
Read MoreLocated near Clutier in Tama County, Mark Pokorny began hosting a demonstration site in Fall 2009 for the ILF/PFI cover crop working group. “I was interested in trying a winter rye cover crop for the erosion benefits over winter and in early spring,” Mark said. “I had not considered the nutrient capture, organic matter increases and reduced weed pressure benefits that I saw in 2011.” This past harvest, Pokorny reported higher soybean yield following the cover crop and also saw reduced common waterhemp and lambsquarter weed pressure.
Read MoreBrian Sampson and his wife Deb raise corn and soybeans as well as operate a cattle feedlot in rural Story County. In 2016, Iowa Learning Farms approached Brian to be a part of a new Conservation Learning Labs (CLL) project that is studying changes in nitrogen and phosphorus loss at the delivery scale.
Read MoreLarry Haren farms near Webster City in Hamilton County. Over the past 15 years, Haren has applied several conservation practices to his operation including: no-till, cover crops, bioreactor, a soil retention pond, grassed waterways and restoration of oxbows.
Read MoreILF farmer partner Arlo Van Diest hopes to leave the soil on his farm in better shape for the next generation. To do this, he converted to strip-till in 2001 and has continued using it ever since. Van Diest grows corn and soybeans on his farm located near Webster City in Hamilton County.
Read MoreFred and Vicki Abels farm about 400 acres just outside Holland, Iowa. Fred started farming in 1981 on his family’s farm in Grundy County. It was a traditional soybean and corn rotation with a cow herd. He became interested in conservation practices after attending Practical Farmers of Iowa field days and switched to no-till soybeans in 1994. In the mid-2000s he started strip-till before corn and immediately sold all tillage equipment. In 2009, he started using cover crops, and in the early days, Fred had them custom flown on but then bought a grain drill as he had better germination rates. He no longer has a cattle herd but used to harvest about 20 acres of cover crops to use as cattle feed.
Read MoreRod Pierce is one of the original group of Iowa Learning Farms farmer partners. He has been farming since 1973 and worked 1,800 acres of corn and soybeans near Woodward in Boone County. Rod has also been a Pioneer seed dealer for over 30 years. He is using vertical tillage on all his acres.
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