Iowa farmers answer public service calling

Jun 05, 2025

Farmers play a big role in elected or appointed leadership positions in rural county governments.

Iowa farmer Barry Anderson is a prime example. He followed family members’ sense of community service to become a county supervisor.

“I got an extra sense of service to the community started when I was growing up as I watched my dad and grandpa who both farmed and were members of Farm Bureau,” said Anderson, who has served on the Clay County Board of Supervisors for over 10 years.

His experience includes about 15 years on the Iowa Pork Producers Association board, nearly 17 years on the Iowa Farm Bureau board and 13 years on his local school board.

His school board experience probably prepared him the most for duties as a county supervisor, he said. Anderson served at the end of the South Clay County School District’s existence.

“It started getting so small, we had to transition to closing. It was a learning experience to find the best way to go forward,” he said.

Anderson enjoys the roles he held in leadership at the Iowa State Association of Counties, including now as its past president.

“You need a seat at the table to be effective,” he said. “Many things we do touch people in many ways — drainage in rural areas, human issues.”

He also worked on committees on rural affairs and membership with the National Association of Counties organization. Additionally, he participated in a NACo disaster task force last summer when flooding inundated the Spencer, Iowa, area.

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Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.