A look into the forces driving accelerated adoption of conservation in Iowa

By Dan Looker

Joel Rasmussen and his father, Kevin, are strong conservationists, using strip tillage for years to reduce erosion on their farm near Humboldt, Iowa. But when Joel’s father tried seeding a cover crop of oats after combining corn a few years ago, he didn’t get a good stand.

Now the younger Rasmussen has decided to tackle covers again. He was inspired by conservation agronomists at a field day last spring, put on by Gold Eagle Co-op. And, he added, “I feel like it’s the right thing to do.”

He planned to have the cover crop seeded by drone earlier in the season for better emergence. But when he went to his nearby district conservation office to sign up for Iowa Department of Land Stewardship (IDALS) cost share, he hit another speed bump—money.

“The pace of adoption, I think, has significantly gone up,” he told IAWA recently. “I signed up the last week of July and some of the programs were running out of funding. I had to hustle to get in.”

It turns out that Rasmussen’s experience was a bellwether of this year’s miniboom in cover crops and other measures IDALS is using to speed water quality improvements in the Raccoon and Des Moines River watershed–an effort dubbed the “Greater Des Moines Watershed Program.” It also highlights remaining challenges and opportunities described by a sample of farmers in this year’s signup. Progress isn’t a straight line. They know of other farmers who have tried and abandoned cover crops. Some very large operations seem unable to work them in. Yet younger farmers like Rasmussen, who is 40, are enthusiastic about its potential.

In early September IDALS reported more than 340,000 acres enrolled for cover crops in the watershed’s 22 counties—more than triple the number there in 2025. And, for the first time, statewide cover crop acres funded by IDALS passed 1 million, up from 700, 000 a year ago. It remains far behind the nearly 13-million-acre goal of one scenario in the state’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. Yet, farmers use cost share from a variety of sources (which can be compared here on our site). Including all cost share and farmers’ own spending on cover crops, their Iowa acreage hit nearly 4 million in 2024.

IDALS’ Cattle Call

At the state fair last August, Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig rolled out an expansion of another water quality initiative, the Cattle and Conservation Working Lands Program, in the same 22 counties.  In just 10 days, available cost share was committed. IDALS kicked in another $2.1 million to be offered through the end of this year.

Brian Brenny, with White Gate Cattle Co., who also farms in Carroll and Guthrie counties, was one of those who signed up.

“With this Working Lands Program, we’re hoping to get more pasture production in the summer,” he explained. He raises corn and soybeans with his parents and in-laws. And he has an Angus-Simmental cattle herd that features a bull sale every February.

The farm already has some bromegrass pasture that thrives in spring and fall. The new pasture will increase conservation. “Everything we seeded down was a little more erodible and less productive. It wasn’t the best crop ground,” he said.

It will also help him expand the herd—a work opportunity for his two elementary school and two high school children and his wife as well. “Everybody gets involved with livestock,” he joked.

This spring he seeded warm-season grasses and bloat-resistant alfalfa in an 18-acre Carroll County crop field he enrolled a year ago. Next year he’ll plant another 12- acre pasture in Guthrie County with this year’s IDALS cost share.

The working lands program offers one-time payments of $290/acre to help establish a hay field and $1,000/acre for a permanent pasture.

Brenny is using the $1,000 for rent on the fields and he finances the seeding on his own.

“To establish pasture and pay rent, it’s pretty hard to make that cash flow,” he said. “That’s where the Working Lands helps,” he said.

After taking a cutting of hay off the new pasture in Carroll County last summer, Brenny turned the cattle in for two weeks to graze, mainly on the alfalfa that was already well established. “It was a little nerve-racking grazing alfalfa but it worked great, with a little management,” he said. They followed that with a second cutting of high-quality hay.

Brenny hopes to increase cattle production even more with USDA EQIP cost share for virtual fencing for rotational grazing.  EQIP also pays for tech support on putting collars on each cow to make the invisible fence work.

“We’re going to learn a lot over the next few years. We’re kind of excited about it,” he said. “Trying new things, there’s always some financial risk. It really helps with these programs to go through the transition.”

The Covers Obstacle Course

When Dan Frederick of Bagley, Iowa, started growing cover crops about seven years ago, he, too, found challenges.

That’s when he and his father, Rodney, started planting cover crops to control erosion, with cost share from USDA’s EQIP (Environmental Quality Initiatives Program). Under the program rules, if they planted cereal rye, “we were having to put on 65-70 pounds of seed [per acre]. That was too much.”

They learned that by seeding 2.5 pounds of crimson clover and another pound of turnips an acre, they met EQIP seed requirements and were able to lower the cereal rye to 35 pounds.

“It’s enough to make a good cover but not so much you have to fight it to get corn or beans into it,” he said.

The pitfalls of cover crop adoption are well known—tricky termination in cool springs, uncertain fall emergence, and potential yield drag in corn if the covers tie up nitrogen. First- timers often prefer oats and other crops that winterkill, avoiding spring termination.

Joel Rasmussen has encountered another obstacle—rootworms. They were so bad last year that he could easily pull corn out of the ground. So, he’s trying cover crops on only about half of the 300 acres he farms on his own. His conservation advisers have discouraged cover crops where corn grew in the field, concerned that they might prolong the infestation.

Cover Crop Veterans’ Benefits

Cover crop veterans cite benefits, too.  “I know we’re getting better water infiltration. How much is cover crops and how much is no-till, I don’t know,” said Frederick, whose farm has also been in no-till for a decade.

 “And with our 50-60 stock cows, it provides quite a bit of feed,” Frederick added.  “I farm the whole section I live on. The cows run the whole section all winter.”

This year the Fredericks have signed up another 135 acres in the new watershed cover crop initiative.

Like many farmers with cover crops, they’re in more than one program.

“We’re supposed to be signed up with the state program and, through the Iowa Soybean Association, with Farmers for Soil Health.” (That’s a private program funded by three commodity groups—National Soybean and Pork Boards and National Corn Growers.)

A Smorgasbord of Practices

Newbies to cover crops in this year’s signup are already doing more to reduce nitrates in the Des Moines Watershed.

Blake Fonken of Lake City has only been crop farming seven years. He has started cutting back fall anhydrous and hog manure rates and then side dresses the remainder of the nitrogen and sulfur while the crop is growing during the next season.

“By doing this we are putting out 50-75 pounds less Nitrogen in the fall,” he said.

After buying more ground three years ago and having it tiled, he’s also adding a bioreactor. He has already sampled water for nitrates (about 22 ppm). With a bioreactor installed, “I think we’re going to get good results.”  The bioreactor drains toward the Raccoon River.

He’s new to cover crops—trying out a 20-acre plot this summer that was also no-tilled and comparing it to a conventionally tilled field.

“This year I’m doing the whole field (112 acres) to cover crops. We droned it on last week,” he said in late September. He’s using a winter kill mix of oats, turnips and rapeseed ahead of a corn crop next year.

Brian Hayek who farms in the Eagle Grove area is taking the plunge into conservation practices with both cover crops and strip tillage. He is also in the process of installation of a bioreactor. The bioreactor will go in a field that’s less than a quarter-mile from the
Boone River, he said.

“This will be my first year of doing cover crops and strip till. I am doing it on a 300-acre tract of my farms,” he said. He’s using a drone-applied winter mix in a field to be planted to
corn next spring. He believes cost share will cover all of his expenses.

“I’ve been watching Des Moines and the nitrate issues they’ve had. I thought that’s something I can do to help. Then IDALS came out with their cost share and that made it
easier.” he said. “I’m hoping to get less erosion, better water drainage in the field and
hopefully I get better weed suppression as well.”

Down the Road and Across the Ditch

Such enthusiasm isn’t universal. Hayek knows farmers who have abandoned cover crops.

“One guy quit doing it because it was so hard to kill the rye,” he recalled. “One said he wasn’t happy with the emergence.”

Blake Fonken, who also works as an agronomist for a co-op, also sees some reluctance to try both cover crops and no-till.

The reasons for hesitation include, “the equipment costs to switch to strip till, the extra management and possibilities for things to go wrong with cover crops,” Fonken said. And on flat fields, “a lot of guys like tillage to help it dry out better.”

Still, with high fertilizer costs, Fonken sees more farmers switching from an all fall-applied nitrogen program to a split-applied nitrogen program where a smaller portion of nitrogen is applied in the fall and the remainder applied next year during the growing season.

 He has a neighbor down the road who is also putting in a bioreactor.

“I think people are starting to be more environmentally conscious” he said.

Parting Advice

With growing environmentalism in rural Iowa, cost share competition may be increasing, too.

Joel Rasmussen, who works for Farm Credit Services as well as farming, shares a few tips.

“If you’re considering it, get started in the spring rather than later,” he said.

And he’s grateful for the knowledge of conservation agronomists at his co-op.

“My big advice: find somebody in the network that knows more than you and can get you going in the right direction. It can be a humbling experience.”