We partner with farmers all around the state. Read their stories and find connections in your area by clicking on the regions below.
For nearly 50 years, Carl has been fostering his family’s farm back to the native prairie. He still combines every year, harvesting prairie seed rather than grain, but there is no need for planting or any other inputs. Rather than restarting every year, the prairie’s diversity builds upon itself through Carl’s management of prescribed burns and the physical removal or spot spraying of invasive species.
Read MoreMark farms just under 1000 acres in Badger Iowa, about 15 minutes north of Fort Dodge. As a young man, he farmed alongside his father and grandfather, who abandoned the moldboard in the 60s. Continuing his grandfather’s legacy, Mark switched to minimum tillage 20 years ago and cover crops in the last 10 years. He admits that when he first implemented cover crops, there were a few years when he “got burned by not listening to how the older farmers made it work.”
Read MoreAlthough Lee didn’t grow up in Iowa, his family has been farming outside Slater since the mid-1800s. Since he returned to the family land in the early 80s, Lee has continually experimented with the cutting edge of conservation practices, while maintaining high levels of productivity. Lee’s strong ethic for water quality has specifically led to the installation of 3 saturated buffers and a bioreactor.
Read MoreAt 10 years old, Wade Dooley had cattle that he cared for, and at 14, he tended field of row crops on his own. After attending ISU and moving to Florida to grow watermelons commercially, Wade returned to Albion in 2008 to become the sixth generation to farm family land. At the time that he returned, he operated 800 acres of row crops and had a 120 cow herd.
Read MoreCraig Fleishman farms in rural Minburn, Dallas County, where he raises corn, soybeans, oats and hay. He calls his Century Farm “halfway between conventional and organic” and has been using ridge-tillage since 1981 and no-tillage since 1985.
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