Conservation Compass

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  • Cropping Innovation and Soil Regeneration Draws Farmer Attention at Hora Field Day

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    By Kurt Lawton Despite Covid-19 and hot weather, an impressive turnout — more than 150 farmers and other soil-loving attendees — gathered at the Hora family farm in southeast Iowa to experience hands-on soil health demos, cover crop experiments, and creative cropping systems. Continuum Ag founder and soil health consultant Mitchell Hora (shown above in…

  • Building a Business Case for Cover Crops

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    By Elizabeth Ripley, Iowa Learning Farms Iowa Learning Farms (ILF), a conservation-focused education and outreach program for Iowa farmers and landowners based at Iowa State University (ISU) Extension and Outreach, is collaborating with Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) to provide an online Cover Crop Boot Camp in July. Billed as an event where ag retailers…

  • Digging Deep On Cover Crops And Soil Health: Opportunities and Answers for Ag Retailers

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    By Jim Jordahl A one-day, deep dive into cover crops for more than thirty ag retail managers and their agronomists was held at the Iowa Soybean Association in March. This in-depth workshop was designed to help ag retail agronomists field questions on cover crops and soil health from their farmer-customers. The workshop featured top national…

  • Small Business Opportunities Grow As Cover Crop Acres Expand

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    By Kurt Lawton Ask Iowa cattleman and farmer Bill Couser about how his conservation journey began. He humbly and proudly mentions the values instilled in him by his conservationist father, Dick Couser. “He got us going down the right path — wanting to do conservation right, or not at all,” he says. “Then, there was…

  • Cover Crops Boot Camp-Farmers Share Lessons Learned

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    By Kurt Lawton “If you want to succeed at cover crops, you will. If you want to fail at cover crops, you will.” These are examples of some of the honest, direct, farmer-to-farmer wisdom shared at the recent Cover Crops Boot Camp held in Ames. Finding success, considering challenges, and exploring solutions were among the exercises…

  • Equipment Companies Partner To Expand Cover Crop Success

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    By Kurt Lawton Seeding cover crops early to improve growth before winter drives the water and soil improvement goals of this partnership effort by Montag and Hagie.  Farmers truly appreciate small town, equipment-fixing talents, which harken back to the days of local blacksmith shops and the seemingly-magical methods used to bring parts and equipment back…

  • Partners Help Grow Iowa Farm Into Conservation Research Showcase

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    By Kurt Lawton Ask Iowa cattleman and farmer Bill Couser about how his conservation journey began. He humbly and proudly mentions the values instilled in him by his conservationist father, Dick Couser. “He got us going down the right path — wanting to do conservation right, or not at all,” he says. “Then, there was…

  • Polk County Accelerates Water Quality Efforts on Central Iowa Farms

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    More landowners sign up for nitrate filtration practices in farm fields thanks to a visionary new public-private partnership approach that is turnkey and systems-based By Kurt Lawton Creating a scalable system that can move the needle faster to reduce nitrate in Polk County watersheds began by rethinking the entire process of marketing and delivery of…

  • Multiple Stakeholders Share Approaches for Source Water Protection

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    The Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance (IAWA) Advisory Council recently met and tackled the important topic of source water protection. Source water refers to sources of water (such as rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, springs, and groundwater) that provide water to public drinking water supplies and private wells. Cities and agencies are increasingly incorporating source water protection…

  • A Passion to Showcase Soil Health Builds Consultant Success

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    By Kurt Lawton Taking a more holistic view of farming — from the health of microbes in the soil to the health of crop profits — has farmers paying attention to a young soil health consultant in eastern Iowa. Mitchell Hora’s data-driven approach to soil biology, combined with his passion for on-farm research and education…