Delivering Conservation Programs to Iowa Farmers Roger Wolf ISA RCFI Director of Conservation rwolf@iasoybeans.com
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s one of the nation’s leading row crop organizations, the Iowa Soybean Association’s (ISA) farmer leadership supports the Research Center for Farming Innovation’s (RCFI) robust programming, directly helping farmers be more productive, profitable and sustainable. As the RCFI Director of Conservation, I oversee a group of highly qualified staff, deploying projects and programs originating out of the headquarters in Ankeny. Our conservation programs support our farmers by addressing goals to improve soil and water quality, reduce soil erosion and nutrient loss and improve habitat. We implement this work in conjunction with RCFI’s agronomy research and analytics and insight staff to ensure robust data and information are used to assist with decision-making. As we work to support farmers, we also engage numerous partners and collaborators
such as ag retailers, university researchers, local county officials and state and federal agencies. Todd Sutphin, conservation program lead and Mike Gilman, conservation agronomy lead, oversee the teams working directly with farmers. “We feel local natural resource and management issues are best addressed at the local level,” says Sutphin. “At RCFI, we help provide better information and data for decision making. The best outcomes are when farmers are active participants and can help drive production, profitability and sustainability.” RCFI’s conservation programs provide farmers access to technical and financial assistance, helping drive the implementation of on-farm conservation practices across Iowa. RCFI’s conservation professionals provide support for project planning, development and implementation of
practices for continual improvement of soil, water and habitat aligning with farmer operator and landowner goals.
Water management strategies and services RCFI’s team of experts also provide water management strategies and services. This includes support for watershed planning, research and technical consultation on drainage water management; water monitoring program design, sampling, laboratory data analysis and interpretation and technical support for edge-of-field practice placement and implementation. For the last two decades, ISA has supported watershed programming and planning efforts to generate a local place-based implementation project to improve water quality while also supporting agricultural production. This work emphasizes locally-led watershed planning efforts
HAVE A TRIAL OR A PROJECT YOU’RE INTERESTED IN? We can potentially explore it as a topic in a future issue. Better yet, we’ll connect you with your local expert so you can implement a trial on your farm. 515-251-8640
JMCCLURE@IASOYBEANS.COM
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