West Central Iowa Farmer Partners

While not your average Iowa farmer, Bill Buman has played a key role in helping conserve the state’s natural resources. While he does utilize practices such as no-tillage and cover crops on his row-crop land, Bill is also one of four Iowans producing native seed on a large scale. With greenhouses holding up to 100,000 plants, Bill harvests roughly 30 different species each year. In addition, Bill has also experimented with strip cropping and different nutrient application methods. His most recent trial was the use of a drone to apply herbicide.

For Brandon McHugh, farming is much more than an occupation. A deep agricultural heritage has pushed him to utilize conservation practices in hopes of protect the state’s soil and water. His efforts to protect Iowa’s natural resources can further be seen through his role as a Master Conservationist for Harrison County. With both crops and livestock, Brandon understands the need to create a sustainable future and give back to the land.

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.

Rosemary Partridge grew up on a farm near Iowa City. She remembers her dad reading farm magazines to look for practices that would work on his land. Their worst nightmare was doing something wrong and losing their good topsoil. Conservation was a point of pride with the people that she knew – people had pride in passing on their land to their children.

ILF farmer partner Bill Hammitt knows conservation from many aspects. He is a no-till farmer and was employed for 15 years at Natural Resources Conservation Service. Farming near Portsmouth in Harrison County, he has been a corn-soybean no-tiller for over 30 years. He farmed while working for NRCS and the farm grew to where he couldn’t keep doing both, so he chose to become a full-time farmer.

Whiterock 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.

David Jensen grew up on the family farm three miles east of his current farmstead. He farms with his father, Daryl, and brother Brian, managing 1800 acres. David also manages an 8400-head hog nursery.