Field Work host Zach Johnson has tried planting cover crops a few times on his heavy clay soils in Central Minnesota, but has had nothing but failures. In this episode, Ken Franzky, an agronomist with Centrol Crop Consulting, gives Zach some insights into how to try again. Ken tells Zach and Mitchell that his recs […]
Cover Crops Part 3: Can They Work Up North?
Media Type: Podcast
Carrying the Torch: A New Generation Advances the Cause
Young farmers coming back to a family operation often have to tease out a place for themselves with hard work, creativity and an entrepreneurial zeal. For Trent Stout, that meant taking on the family seed business and migrating it from being a local corn and soybean dealer to be the go-to source for diverse cover […]
What’s So Amazing about Grazing?
Maybe it seems crazy to some row crop farmers to add livestock into their field rotation. But for Michael Vittetoe, the benefits of adding cattle to his Iowa farm have been plentiful. Hosts Zach Johnson and Mitchell Hora talk with Michael about how livestock integration adds carbon back into the ground, helps to keep soil […]
Conservation Pays: Farmer Rick Juchems with his daughter Liz
A conservation advocate, Rick Juchems farms in northeast Iowa and has implemented numerous conservation practices including cover crops. His daughter Liz is following in his footsteps — not in farming, but in conservation education and outreach.
Farmer Seth Watkins: Curiosity, Creativity and Happy Cows
Seth Watkins farms his family heritage farm in southwest Iowa. He has a 600-head cow-calf enterprise and a whole farm approach to conservation: rotational grazing, wetlands, late season calving, and row crops integrated with prairie strips and cover crops.