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 soil conservation

December 11, 2024: Tillage Management for Soil Conservation in Row Crop Systems

December 11, 2024: Tillage Management for Soil Conservation in Row Crop Systems

With Francisco Arriaga

Conservation, Webinars, Soil ConservationAlena WhitakerDecember 12, 2024tillage, row crop, soil health, soil conservation

Long Term Winter Cereal Rye Demonstration

Long Term Winter Cereal Rye Demonstration

A study looking at the impact of winter cereal rye on crop yield and soil 12 Iowa farms from 2008-2019.

Cover Crops, Soil Conservation, ConservationLiz RipleyJanuary 3, 2023soil conservation, long term rye, winter cereal rye

The Economic Value of Cover Crops

The Economic Value of Cover Crops

A study estimating the value of retained nutrients and land value from the use of cover crops.

Cover Crops, Soil Conservation, ConservationLiz RipleyJune 30, 2022economics, soil conservation

Reducing Soil Erosion with Rye Cover Crops

Reducing Soil Erosion with Rye Cover Crops

A case study using rainfall simulation to estimate soil erosion and water infiltration rates in a corn silage/soybean rotation when a cereal rye cover crop is added compared to no cover crop.

Cover Crops, Soil ConservationLiz RipleyJune 30, 2022soil erosion, soil conservation, rye