Chris Henning

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 six 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. What changed for Chris was her discovery of prairie restoration, which she has implemented through CRP. By raising her return of investment per acre through CRP, she gained the motivation to discover an ever-deepening involvement with the health of her land.

As a landowner, Chris is a firm believer in cost-share leases which allow her to call the shots and have a stake in the land’s productivity. As such, she is highly active in the Women Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN), in which she “encourages other women that they have an opinion and that opinion counts.”

Building a Culture of Conservation: 

“So many farmers don’t seem to understand that when you put land into CRP, you’re raising your return on investment. It’s as if farmers think it would be “sissy” to give up on land that was never meant to be farmed in the first place. But here’s the truth, what started as a financial decision quickly became something that I knew was worth it without the payment, just to see how the land changes. Sometimes we forget just how much humans need wilderness.”

Contact Information

Chris Henning
402 Main, Suite 2, Cooper, IA 50059
515-370-2436
chris.henning.50059@gmail.com