Layering Land Management: Combining In-Field and Edge-of-Field Practices for Water Quality and Soil Health

Clark Porter is a landowner and farm manager for Porter Family Farms in Iowa’s Grundy and Tama counties, alongside his mother Audrey and wife Sharon. Though he hires custom operators for fieldwork, Clark plays an integral role in production and conservation efforts. These have included overseeing the transition to 100% no-till, adding in cover crops and adopting several conservation practices, including saturated buffers and enrolling land in the Conservation Reserve Program.

Come see how Porter Family Farms manages nutrients, soil health, nitrate runoff, no-till and cover crops. Attendees will learn about an experimental “saturated waterway” currently monitored by researchers at ISU and the University of Iowa. Farm landowners are encouraged to attend to explore how they can actively manage conservation on their land.