Cover Crop and Soil Health Field Day in rural Webster City | IAWA

Soil Health Field Day at the Haren Farm

A field day featuring numerous soil health and water quality practices, including a bioreactor, pond, CRP, pollinator plantings, restored oxbows, no-till, cover crops, and shelter belts. Prairie Rivers of Iowa has partnered with Iowa Learning Farms for this event, and in addition to the host farmer, they will have speakers from Iowa State University, the Nature Conservancy, and Iowa Learning Farms at the event.

The field day will be held at Larry Haren’s farm, rural Webster City. The field day is free and open to the public and includes a complimentary meal.

Topics at the Event

Hamilton County farmer, Larry Haren, has implemented a wide variety of conservation practices over the past 15 years including no-till, oxbows, a bioreactor, grassed waterways and cover crops. Since 2012, Haren has been using cover crops to promote soil biology and is also harvesting winter cereal rye for cover crop seed. Haren will share his experiences and challenges of growing cover crops and keeping the soil, nitrates and phosphorus on his land.

Also speaking at the field day is Rick Cruse, professor of agronomy at Iowa State University. He will share updates from the Iowa Daily Erosion Project and discuss the importance of soil health. Liz Juchems, events coordinator for Iowa Learning Farms, will lead a discussion on cover crop species selection, seeding techniques and termination considerations. A discussion on oxbow restoration will be led by Karen Wilke, Boone River Watershed Project Coordinator and Kayla Hasper, watershed coordinator for Prairie Rivers of Iowa, will provide information on the watershed project and opportunities to get involved. 

Field Day Details

Please RSVP so hosts can plan ahead for food. To RSVP for this event on Facebook, you can visit here.

Directions to this field day are available here.