Resources

All of our resources are available from this page. You can also visit the specific pages for individual topics to get focused information on those areas.

Conservation

Conservation encompasses many areas - soil, water, and crop considerations all play a part. We offer a variety of practical resources to help you find the answers to your questions.

"How resilient are our lands here in the Midwest? What is our ability to retain productivity if we have another long drought or continual flooding? Will people still be farming in Iowa 1,500 years from now? Or even 200 years from now? The decisions we make today about our natural resources will affect agricultural production 50 years from now."
--from the video "The Work of Our Hands"

Conservation Resources

Cover Crops

Cover crops are a great way to improve soil health. Many Iowa farmers are adding cover crops to their crop rotations so soil stays covered when the fields are not growing other crops. Cover crops also improve soil organic matter and slow water runoff.

Farmers have many questions about incorporating cover crops. Most asked questions include: what kinds of plants can be used, when and how to seed and when and how to terminate. With field days and workshops, Iowa Learning Farms strives to help farmers, and other interested people, find the answers to these questions and more.

Cover Crop Resources

Edge of Field

Edge-of-field practices play a crucial role in meeting the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy goals of improving water quality through reducing nitrogen and phosphorus in Iowa's water bodies. Edge-of-field practices involve drainage water management, bioreactors, buffers, saturated buffers, denitrifying wetlands, terraces and sediment control.

Edge of Field Resources

Relay Intercropping

Relay intercropping is a multi-year, multi-species cropping system that allows for 3 harvestable crops (small grain, soybean, corn) in 2 years.

View recent webinars, blogs and publications from ongoing research farm and on-farm demonstrations.

Relay Intercropping

Field Day Toolkit

This Field Day Toolkit is the product of Iowa Learning Farms’ many years of planning and hosting field day events across the state of Iowa. While ILF utilizes many different outreach approaches, the importance of farmer-to-farmer interactions cannot be overstated. Field days do matter!

Field Day Toolkit

Recent Resources

Posts tagged prairie

December 13, 2023: Planning and Planting Prairie: Research and On-farm Experience

December 13, 2023: Planning and Planting Prairie: Research and On-farm Experience

With Laura Jackson

Webinars, Conservation, Conservation Crops, Cover Crops, Soil ConservationAlena WhitakerDecember 13, 2023prairie, prairie strips, diversity

August 16, 2023: Comparing Infiltration Between Prairie Strips and Row Crop Fields Across Iowa

August 16, 2023: Comparing Infiltration Between Prairie Strips and Row Crop Fields Across Iowa

With Eric Henning

Webinars, Conservation, Conservation CropsLiz RipleyAugust 17, 2023conservation, prairie strips, prairie, infiltration, soil, water quality

Anaerobic Digesters for Renewable Natural Gas

Anaerobic Digesters for Renewable Natural Gas

Anaerobic Digesters for Renewable Natural Gas

One way farmers can participate in the shift towards more renewable energy is by building an anaerobic digester on their farm or supplying feedstock for a nearby digester.

Soil Conservation, Conservation Crops, Water ConservationLiz RipleyNovember 28, 2022redefining the field edge, prairie, profitability

Redefining the Field Edge: Improving Farm Profitability with Strategically Placed Prairie

Redefining the Field Edge: Improving Farm Profitability with Strategically Placed Prairie

What is redefining the field edge?
A land-use-change concept that alters a field’s cropping boundaries, converting some parts of the field to perennial prairie vegetation.

Soil Conservation, Conservation Crops, Water ConservationLiz RipleyAugust 22, 2022redefining the field edge, prairie, profitability