By Carol Brown
Iowa Learning Farms, along with the Smeltzer Charitable Trust, will host a field day on Wednesday, Sept. 2, from 5-7:30 p.m. at the Smeltzer Learning Farm, rural Otho. The field day will focus on “Conservation at Work,” demonstrating conservation farming practices to help reduce soil erosion and nutrients entering Iowa’s water bodies as well as improve soil health and productivity.
Optional tours of the Smeltzer Farm will be available beginning at 4 p.m. as well as after the program. Tour participants will be able to see some of the conservation practices that are being used on the farm. The Webster County Cattlemen and community partners will serve a complimentary supper at 5 p.m.
The program begins at 5:40 p.m. with Angie Rieck-Hinz welcoming guests. She is a field agronomist for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Ralph Storm with Storm Flying Service will present information on seeding cover crops aerially. Storm Flying Service will then seed a cover crop plot on the farm. Matt Helmers, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach water quality engineer, will review the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy and ways farmers and landowners can reduce nitrogen and phosphorus leaving their fields.
Harry Ahrenholtz will share the role of Agriculture’s Clean Water Alliance. Todd Sutphin and Keegan Kult, with the Iowa Soybean Association, will discuss how bioreactors and saturated buffers work to remove nitrates from tile-drained fields. Nathan Stein, senseFly, and Dave Nelson with Brokow Supply, will present information on the use of drones in agriculture.
The field day will be at the Ann Smeltzer Learning Farm, located one mile south of Otho on County Road P59 (Nelson Ave.) in Webster County. The farm is on the east side of the road. The event is free and open to the public.
The Ann Smeltzer Learning Farm was established in 2006 as a learning farm to show different land treatments and conservation methods for farmers and landowners to learn from and carry out on their own land. The farm grows corn and soybeans on several different land treatments including strip-tillage, no-till and with cover crops. More than 20 demonstrations on the farm include: restored oxbows, streambank stabilization and buffers, grassed waterways, prairies, riparian plantings and terraces.
The Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy is a guideline to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus that enter Iowa’s waterways. Using a suite of conservation practices such as cover crops, extended rotations, nutrient management and edge-of-field structures such as bioreactors and wetlands will reduce nonpoint source pollution significantly in Iowa waters and downstream. For more information on the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy, visit www.nutrientstrategy.iastate.edu/.
Source:iastate.edu