Growing Returns

Change in weather shifts Iowa farmer’s approach, saving money and time

By / Published: July 21, 2020

This blog is authored by Bethany Baratta, senior writer at Iowa Soybean Association. It originally posted on the Iowa Soybean Association Newsroom. 

Wayne Fredericks and his wife Ruth began farming in northern Iowa in the early 1970s. For the first 19 years of their farming careers, their farm was managed conventionally: corn stalks were plowed and soybean stubble was tilled before planting.

wayne

Iowa farmer Wayne Fredericks says his integrated cropping system saves time and money and protects natural resources. (Photo: Joseph L. Murphy/Iowa Soybean Association)

It was a change in the weather that altered their conventional farming practices — for the better. Read More »

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Why recordkeeping is “one of the most essential pieces of farming today”

By / Published: June 18, 2020

This blog is authored by Bethany Baratta, senior writer at Iowa Soybean Association. It originally posted on the Iowa Soybean Association Newsroom.

Devoting adequate time and attention to maintaining records that blend agronomic and financial data is key to farm business success, especially in tight or low margin environments.

“I think recordkeeping is one of those overlooked parts of farm businesses,” says Dave Walton, an Iowa farmer and Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) District 6 director. “It takes a little extra time to do it, but you learn so much more by taking that extra time. It helps you make really, really comfortable, solid decisions.” Read More »

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Congress just took two actions to boost climate resilience in agriculture

By / Bio / Published: June 8, 2020

Many farmers have been feeling climate impacts on their operations through more variable rainfall, warmer nights, and shifting planting and harvesting windows. These impacts only compound other uncertainties in the agricultural economy.

Policies that help reduce production risk and increase yield resilience are good for farmers and the farm economy. Conservation practices like cover crops and fertilizer optimization can do both, while also providing broader benefits like emissions reductions or water quality protections.

Congress recently took two important, bipartisan steps to reward farmers for being part of the climate solution. Here’s how these policies will help build climate resilience for U.S. agriculture.

Read More »

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3 ways to build a more resilient food supply chain

By / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: May 11, 2020

COVID-19 is upending the food supply chain. Thousands of workers have been infected. Businesses have shut down. Supplies of meats and other labor-intensive foods are tightening, while a surplus of perishable milk and crops has been dumped or left in fields to rot.

This is a nightmare for farmers, workers and consumers. Read More »

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How farm transition plans can preserve conservation values and legacies

By / Published: May 1, 2020

This blog is authored by Bethany Baratta, senior writer at Iowa Soybean Association. 

A significant number of farmland acres in Iowa will be transferred to the next generation of farmers in the coming decade, providing a great opportunity for preserving and expanding conservation practices that have proven financial and resilience benefits.

According to Iowa State University, 60% of Iowa farmland is owned by people over the age of 65, and 35% of Iowa farmland is owned by those over 75. By 2024, landlords in the U.S. expect to transfer 91.5 million acres, or 10% of all U.S. farmland.

The way in which the land is transferred from one generation to the next could have a profound impact on the future of conservation efforts, and of the land itself. Read More »

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How Congress can help farmers reduce loss and risk in uncertain times

By / Published: April 1, 2020

By Keith Alverson, a sixth-generation grain farmer in Chester, South Dakota and an adviser to Environmental Defense Fund.

It goes without saying that 2019 was an extremely difficult year for farmers like me. Unprecedented amounts of snow and rain led to 3.9 million acres in our state that couldn’t be planted.

Lake County, South Dakota, were I live, received 32% more rainfall than in a normal year. For most farmers in the area, this record-setting wet spring meant that they could only plant about 50% of planned corn acres and 80% of planned soybean acres. Read More »

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As if things weren’t already hard enough, farmers must brace for another wet spring

By / Bio / Published: March 20, 2020

Farmers have already been dealing with tough economic conditions exacerbated by a trade war, extreme weather and now the coronavirus. Unfortunately, the latest 2020 spring flood outlook shows that farmers in the Midwest could be facing yet another wet year.

Although projected to be less severe than 2019, the U.S. Spring Flood and Climate Outlook for 2020 predicts widespread flooding across 23 states with severe flooding in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. As a result of the 2019 floods, soils across the Midwest are full of moisture this spring, increasing the likelihood of flooding in 2020. Source: NOAA 

Making American farmland resilient to growing weather shocks like flooding requires greater adoption of conservation practices such as no-till and cover cropping practices that improve water infiltration and reduce erosion and field runoff. Despite the financial benefits of these practices, adoption remains low across the country. In 2017, only 3.9% of U.S. farmland adopted cover crops.

How can we scale conservation practice adoption to reduce risk and boost resilience of the agricultural sector? Read More »

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Monarch butterfly population down 53% from last year. Here’s the swift action we need.

By / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: March 18, 2020

Last week, scientists released results from the latest count of the eastern monarch butterfly population — the main population that migrates east of the Rockies and overwinters in Mexico. The 53% drop from just last year was an unexpected and staggering outcome that left conservationists like me downcast, but ready to act.

While many of us were expecting to see some small decline, this significant drop is especially alarming because it indicates that the monarch population is below the threshold at which scientists predict the migration could collapse. Read More »

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Plant-based foods are booming, but we need sustainable meat, too

By / Published: January 8, 2020

By Ame Igharo, originally published on the EDF+Business blog. 

The statistics on plant-based proteins are eye opening: Beyond Meat’s shares have more than tripled in value since in its IPO in May, Impossible Foods can now be found in about 10,000 restaurants, and the market for meat substitutes is expected to reach $2.5 billion by 2023. In fact, dollar sales of plant-based products are growing double digits across the country, and you can now find meat alternatives in Burger King, White Castle and Carl’s Jr, among other chains. Read More »

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2019 made climate impacts visible. Here are 4 stories of resilience that give me hope for 2020.

By / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: December 19, 2019

This year has been one of the toughest yet for communities across the country feeling the impacts of climate change.

Farmers took big hits from unprecedented flooding in the Midwest, coastal communities were pummeled with record-breaking rainfall and storms, and more than 250,000 acres in my home state of California burned from wildfires that took precious lives and left millions of people without power for days on end. As we enter a new decade, these four stories of resilience provide hope that we will take bold climate action in 2020. Click To Tweet

It’s easy to feel hopeless hearing one climate disaster story after another. But if you look around, there are also stories of resilience that can provide hope for the future. Here are four that inspire me. Read More »

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