• PFI: Cleaning Water With Edge-of-Field Practices

    Cedar Rapids Cedar Rapids, Iowa

    Jim O’Connell and his son, Casey, specialize in corn and soybeans at O’Connell Farms in Linn County, Iowa. For the past 17 years, Jim has planted cover crops green into both corn and beans on all his acres. His farming practices are focused on reducing nitrates from water that leaves his land. He uses a…

  • Drainage water management: Better crops, water, & business

    Join the Agricultural Drainage Management Coalition for an interactive webinar exploring how drainage water management (DWM) can create new opportunities for farmers, contractors, and the ag industry. Hear firsthand from an experienced drainage contractor farmer, crop advisor, drainage engineer, and a leading university researcher.   Register here: https://admcoalition.com/calendar

  • PFI: Oxbows to Improve Water Quality

    Webster City Webster City, Iowa

    In 2018, Selden Spencer purchased farmland along White Fox Creek in Hamilton County, Iowa. The 100-acre property, previously owned by Ray Fry, is a mixture of cropland, woodland, ravines and riparian corridors. Ray still manages the property today. Before he sold the land, Ray worked diligently alongside The Nature Conservancy to restore an oxbow along…

  • NREC Batch & Build Workshop: Site Vetting and Surveying

    Melbourne Melbourne

    This is the second of a series of workshops to help equip ag retail professionals and others to address Iowa’s nitrogen challenge by scaling edge-of-field practices through batch and build delivery models. In coordination with INREC, the workshop is being hosted by Heartland Co-op and the Agricultural Drainage Management Coalition. There is no registration cost…

  • PFI: Making Conservation Programs Work for You

    Red Oak Red Oak, Iowa

    On his fourth-generation farm near Red Oak, Iowa, Dave Carbaugh has done a lot since moving back 15 years ago. Across his 100 acres, he has put in filter strips, grassed waterways, riparian forest buffers, windbreaks, a 10-acre pond and forage plantings, building on work started by earlier generations. For many of these projects, Dave has…

  • PFI: Cover Crops and Conservation Across All Acres

    Oskaloosa Oskaloosa, Iowa

    Jackson and Amanda Drost are part of Drost Farms, a multigenerational family farm in Mahaska County, Iowa, raising corn, soybeans and cattle. Around 2010, the Drosts flew on their first acres of rye cover crop to graze with their cow-calf herd. Those initial acres have increased in recent years. While using primarily rye and oats,…