In a recent study, 60% of Iowa farmers agreed that their fertilizer dealers should do more to help them address nutrient loss. However, those same farmers reported they were least likely to receive information about the Nutrient Reduction Strategy from their local agricultural retailers, seed company salespeople, and independent/private crop advisers. To me, that’s a disconnect. If, as an ag retailer, you want to maintain your status as a farmers’ “most trusted advisor,” then you will want to provide meaningful assistance to help farmers …
Are Sustainability Commitments Achievable?
As a young NRCS Conservationist I was required, every couple of years, to develop a workload analysis for my Soil and Water Conservation District. This exercise required me to evaluate my District’s resource needs and formulate a strategy for how my staff would work with farmers to meet these workload demands. Every single time I did the analysis, I always turned out the same results. In order to accomplish the workload, I invariably needed to quadruple the staff, make a significant improvement in technology, and hope for a miracle that one …
50 million acres pledged in sustainability initiative
"Too many people have lost sight of the fact that productive soil is essential to the production of food.” by: Hugh Hammond BennettOn Monday, December 5th, the Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture announced their goal of advancing the sustainability of U.S. agriculture. To achieve this goal, Field to Market seeks to engage 20% of productive acres of U.S. commodity crop production in its supply chain sustainability program by 2020. This is equivalent to 50 million acres.At the time, two significant things about this announcement jumped out at …
Unintended Consequences
I never knew my Grandpa Buman. He died before I was born. My dad describes Grandpa as “progressive.” In the 1940’s Grandpa decided it was too laborious to farm the curvy creek and so he straightened his ½ mile of Silver Creek in Shelby County, Iowa.Back then, straightening creeks was a common practice. I am sure, given Grandpa’s progressive nature, he was one of the first to straighten his section of the creek. Figure 1 is a photo taken in the 1930’s of Grandpa’s section of creek. Figure 2 shows the same segment in 2011, now owned by my …