Central Iowa — Farmer Partners — Iowa Learning Farms

Kristi Heffelmeier

While her roots are in rural Iowa, Kristi Heffelmeier began her agricultural journey fairly recently in 2013. After several years teaching in San Antonio, Texas, Kristi chose to move back to the Midwest where she soon realized that her family’s fifth generation farm would someday be left to her. Knowing this, she began working her way into the farming operation with her father Chris Foss. Kristi soon decided to put full focus on the operation and now does everything from field work to bookkeeping. The opportunity to farm also opened doors to further implement conservation practices on the family operation.

Central IowaLiz RipleyAugust 8, 2023Tama County

Jacob Bolson

When Jacob Bolson was given the opportunity to rent 240 acres in Fall 2020, he and his wife jumped at the chance. In addition to 139 tillable acres, this piece of land has a 30-acre pasture, two wetlands, and Beaver Creek running through it. Knowing his newly acquired ground had been under continuous corn for 10 years and the pasture overgrazed, Jacob immediately implemented conservation management practices to help build up the land.

Central IowaLiz RipleyJuly 24, 2023Hardin County

Mark Kenney

Mark Kenney is a 5th generation farmer in Story County where he farms corn, soybeans, and seed corn. After growing up in the 80s during the farm crisis he didn’t think he would become a farmer or have a career involved in agriculture at all. When Mark started high school, he had a great ag teacher and FFA advisor who opened students’ eyes to agriculture careers that weren’t involved in production. Mark then went to university in Missouri and majored in ag business with a minor in agronomy. He continued his learning and received a master’s degree in ag economics.

Central IowaLiz RipleyApril 19, 2023Story County

Kellie and AJ Blair

Kellie and AJ Blair farm in Webster County outside of Dayton, IA. After graduating from Iowa State University in 2004, AJ started working alongside his dad on the farm, and Kellie after graduating from ISU worked in various agriculture spaces until she transitioned to farming full-time with her husband in 2017. As fourth-generation farmers, the Blairs are constantly looking for new ways to advance conservation while remaining profitable in Iowa.

Central IowaLiz RipleyNovember 18, 2022Webster County

The Ann Smeltzer Trust/Iowa Learning Farm

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.

Central IowaLiz RipleySeptember 1, 2022Webster County

Dan Eklund

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.

Central IowaLiz RipleySeptember 1, 2022Webster County

Mark Pokorny

Located 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.

Central IowaLiz RipleySeptember 1, 2022Tama County

Brian Sampson

Brian 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.

Central IowaLiz RipleySeptember 1, 2022Story County

Larry Haren

Larry 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.

Central IowaLiz RipleySeptember 1, 2022Hamilton County

Arlo Van Diest

ILF 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.

Central IowaLiz RipleySeptember 1, 2022Hamilton County

Fred Abels

Fred 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.

Central IowaLiz RipleySeptember 1, 2022Grundy County

Rod Pierce

With a lifetime of experience on the farm, Rod Pierce has seen many changes in agriculture over the years. Getting his start in 1973, he has expanded his rural Boone County operation to grow more than 1,600 acres of corn and soybeans. Early in his career, Rod, along with many farmers, used moldboard plows to prepare their soil for planting. Over his many years of farming, he has discovered alternatives to the plow that result in less soil movement and improved soil health. In addition to no-till on some of his acres, Rod also utilizes vertical tillage to redistribute residue and reduce soil disturbance. One of Rod’s recent improvements to his operation was an in-row fertilizer unit on his planter. His hope is to apply nutrients directly where they’re needed to reduce losses.

Central IowaLiz RipleySeptember 1, 2022Boone County