Cam1 2017 11 27

AG Mag Field to Plate Southwest Iowa

Strengthening the tie between farmers and consumers in the restaurant and classroom, and at the grocery and markets.

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2017 WRAPUP: The harvest is complete. How did farmers fare?

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2 Fall 2017

Index A healthy movement

AG Mag Southwest Iowa

Publisher Rich Paulsen

The Country Life Center in Orient is part of a national farm to table push for ag awareness and healthy eating.

Advertising Director Craig Mittag Managing Editor Scott Vicker Magazine Editor Jeff Rogers Page Design Jeff Rogers Reporters & Photographers Tyra Audlehelm Carter Eckl, Alex Felker Rachel Rodgers Scott Vicker Published by Creston News Advertiser 503 W. Adams St. Creston, IA 50801 641-782-2141

COVER STORY PAGE 7

Articles and advertisements are the property of Creston News Advertiser. No portion of the Southwest Iowa Ag Mag may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Ad content is not the responsibility of Creston News Advertiser. The information in this magazine is believed to be accurate; however, Creston News Advertiser cannot and does not guarantee its accuracy. Creston News Advertiser cannot and will not be held liable for the quality or performance of goods and services provided by advertisers listed in any portion of this magazine.

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4 Fall 2017

Index HARVEST WRAPUP

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FRESH APPROACH

Farm to table a movement locally, nationally

BY TYRA AUDLEHELM AND RACHEL RODGERS For Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

F

ood for thought: People are putting more thought into their food.

Did this ear of corn sitting on the dinner plate come from a local farmer? What process took it from a being a small seedling in the dirt to the produce bin at the store?

Field to plate, farm to table, seed to store – there are several terms for the growing movement of knowing where your food comes from before it gets past your lips.

It stretches beyond the average consumer who specifically looks for offerings at the local farmers market and encompasses groceries, restaurants, schools and other organizations.

The concept is two-fold in that people are looking for fresher, healthier food options, while

also supporting area farms with the goal of bolstering the local economy.

There are many links between farmers and consumers in the agricultural food chain, ranging from packaging, transportation and distribution to education, dietetics and marketing. nnn

Local effort Farm to table is a way of life at the Henry A. Wallace Centers of Iowa’s Country Life Center in Orient. There, the rich tradition of farming using soil conservation practices begun by Henry A. Wallace are continued.

The center’s 40 acres of land include large gardens, a silt pond, prairie with outdoor art for visitors, the original house where Henry and his sister, Annabell, were born and the Gathering Barn, which is new but built to fit the 20th Century farm feel of the grounds.

CONTINUED ON 84

Gardeners Bob Bensen, Mosa Shayan, Andy Boone and Adam Main plant garlic at the Country Life Center in rural Orient.

(Tyra Audlehelm/ Southwest Iowa Ag Mag)

AG Mag

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4CONTINUED FROM 7 The Gathering Table restaurant serves locally sourced meals from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Fridays in the spring, summer and fall.

Amy Sivadge is the head chef, and she makes weekly menus based on what foods are available from the gardens.

When she can’t get the foods she needs from the garden, Sivadge buys farmers market vegetables and fruits and local meats from area farmers. She makes sure everything she cooks with is either organic or free of GMOs. The greenhouse on the property helps Sivadge continue to have fresh vegetables year-round. Growing a wider variety of fruits and vegetables than what’s found at a grocery also allows Sivadge to use foods that would usually be considered out of season.

If Sivadge doesn’t use up all the food she makes in a day, she uses what she can as leftovers for another meal.

“Just because it started out as one thing doesn’t mean it can’t be something else later,” Sivadge said.

When cooking chicken or beef, she saves the drippings for gravy or broth, and can make another meal entirely.

Everything that comes from dirt goes

right back to it. Composting is essential for the Country Life Center. All food scraps and parts of the plants that can’t be used for cooking go in the compost piles.

This farm-to-table lifestyle has taken over Sivadge’s kitchen at home, as well.

“Probably 98 percent of what I use at home is organic or non GMO,” she said.

The gardens constantly have crops in them and, after being harvested, a cover crop is always put in, even if just for a couple of weeks.

Mosa Shayan, Andy Boone, Bob Bensen and Adam Main plant, harvest, weed and fertilize the gardens. Main takes care of equipment and keeps things running.

Fish emulsion is used as fertilizer, diluted from a 50-gallon drum of the liquid and sprayed onto foliage.

Lisa Swanson, the Country Life Center’s program assistant, is proud of the work done in the farm-to-table program.

“It’s a big deal being a sustainable farm,” she said.

Swanson encourages everyone to try planting vegetables. She thinks it’s a way to try something new and get cre-

ative with food. She streses the importance of variety in a person’s diet.

“Just because Grandma planted it doesn’t mean you have to,” Swanson said.

State, national efforts Many programs are geared toward teaching students the importance of the role that agriculture plays in their dailylives. They include Agriculture in the Classroom, administered by the Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation.

In addition to Ag in the Classroom, the IALF supports FFA and 4-H. IALF maintains a regular blog at iowaagliteracy.wordpress.com. It also distributed 42,000 copies of its student magazine, Iowa Ag Today, in 2016. The magazine reached 42,000 fourth- and fifth-graders.

It also provides a Teacher Supplmement Grant, which had 217 teacher applicants last year.

And while Iowa students are getting increasing access to ag education, Americans have seen a boom in farmers markets and their fresh and local offerings.

CONTINUED ON 94

Tyra Audlehelm/ Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

A field of lettuce at the Country Life Center in rural Orient gets covered to protect against the colder weather of the harvest season. The center’s gardens have crops in them year-round. The produce is used to make locally sourced meals at the center’s The Gathering Table restaurant.

8 Fall 2017

4CONTINUED FROM 8 Markets throughout the U.S. increased by 92 percent between 1998 and 2009, growing to more than 5,000. Though increases in the past few years are far less significant – the United States Department of Agriculture puts the increase at 0.21 percent since last year – the total number has reached nearly 8,700 markets.

The allure of farmers markets isn’t just freshness; it’s estimated that 65 percent of money put toward local food stays within the community, compared to about 40 percent from big box stores, according to 2012 research from Roslynn Brain, a Sustainable Communities Extension specialist in the Department of Environment and Society, College of Natural Resources at Utah State University.

Grocers are part of the movement, too.

Consumers are more drawn to “locally grown” labels or “grown in the Midwest” stickers – products can be labeled as grown locally or regionally if they were grown within state boundaries or within a 400-mile radius, but they usually come within county lines.

About 36 percent of shoppers choose their primary grocery based on the “quality and variety of fresh foods,” according to recent data from the Food Marketing Institute.

The number of consumers buying

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Tyra Audlehelm/ Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

What used to be an unfinished storage room for apples is now a 20th Century-style office and entertainment room upstairs in the Gathering Barn at the Country Life Center. fresh perishable items has increased 21 percent compared to a year ago and grown 6 percent with those buying more fresh prepared food.

In addition to stores having more locally grown produce, there’s also more organic options filling the shelves.

Research shows that organic products

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Global perspective on ag EU grad spends summer alleviating global hunger in Philippines, Vietnam

W

Photo contributed to Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

Mara Weis’ international internship allowed for a variety of experiences, including a fun break from planting to ride a carabao (water buffalo). Weis said her favorite part of the trip was getting to interact with the farmers in the Philippines and Vietnam.

BY SCOTT VICKER For Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

hile a majority of high school seniors spend the summer planning what to pack for their college dorm room or starting work, Afton native Mara Weis was halfway around the globe, knee deep in a muddy rice paddy, leading a carabao (water buffalo).

Weis, a 2017 East Union High School graduate, spent eight weeks in Los Banos, Philippines, and Vietnam at the International Rice Research Institute during a summer internship. She assisted scientists with research on sustainable rice production and performance.

She also visited several rice paddy fields and worked with the local farmers.

CONTINUED ON 124

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AG Mag

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4CONTINUED FROM 11 The Borlaug-Ruan Internship with the World Food Prize Foundation was created by Dr. Norman Borlaug and John Ruan, Sr., in 1998. The goal of the internship is to help high school and college students engage in issues relating to global hunger and poverty through real-world experiences.

Weis, 18, was one of 24 students selected to participate in the international program.

“I wanted to be able to make a difference and do something that my heart was so passionate about,” Weis said.

“However, aside from those reasons, I had an even bigger purpose in mind. I wanted to show the students at East Union that you can be a part of something bigger and you can chase your dreams.”

Growing up in Southwest Iowa, Weis had plenty of experience with cattle, corn and soybeans. She said learning about rice was challenging, but rewarding. Daily activities were varied, but most of her time was split between data analysis in the lab and hands-on experience visiting local rice farmers.

“My project was to help brainstorm new ideas that will make the Sustainable Rice Platform better and provide more efficient data to IRRI and other organizations regarding the overall sustainability of rice farming practices,” Weis said.

Photo contributed to Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

During her summer internship, Mara Weis was able to visit local farmers involved with the Sustainable Rice Platform Farmers in Vietnam. The farmer’s wife would prepare a meal for Weis and the others working on the farm, and provide insight to their daily life in Vietnam.

Jacob Hunter, a vo-ag teacher and FFA adviser at North Scott High School, encouraged Weis to get involved in the World Food Prize Foundation’s youth programs. Hunter said Weis was a good fit for the program because she was excep-

tional inside and outside of the classroom, balancing an aptitude for research and the ability to communicate with others in the agricultural community.

CONTINUED ON 134

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Photo contributed to Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

Mara Weis (right) collects soil samples from a Filipino rice farmer’s field for analysis during her summer internship with the World Food Prize Foundation.

“Mara is a genuine, caring individual that wants to do as many positive things as she can to make this world a better place,” Hunter said. “She is following in the footsteps of one of the greatest Iowans of all time, Dr. Norman Borlaug, and I know she has the potential to do great things.”

Weis said one of the most impactful moments of the internship was during her visit to Vietnam. After working in the field with a local farmer, she had lunch with his family by the river that irrigated the rice paddy fields.

They ate a fish the family caught out of the river that morning.

“It was an eye-opening experience,” Weis said. “It was encouraging. I learned that agriculture can connect all of us around the globe, even through language barriers.”

A freshman at Iowa State University, Weis is studying ag and life sciences and considering a teaching certification. Her career goal is to utilize her communication skills to expand the reach of new agricultural advancements in rural areas and around the globe.

“Mara is one of the model ag students we have in the state of Iowa,” Hunter said.

The World Food Prize Foundation has several youth programs to inspire young people to fight hunger by pursuing educational and career paths in agriculture. Internship opportunities are available in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Visit worldfoodprize.org for more information.

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FIELD REPORT ’17: Lack of rain leads to a drought of optimism among local farmers

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BY CARTER ECKL AND RACHEL RODGERS For Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

K

yle Thelen owns 200 acres of farmland just outside of Creston. He has an attitude about the weather shared by many of his peers.

“Rain makes grain,” Thelen said.

But what happens when the water shuts off?

Unfortunately, that’s what many farmers locally were facing this harvest. A lack of rain throughout the state had yield projections low.

In addition to being sparse, the rains were spotty, affecting each field in the area differently.

“The rains were very spotty,” said Cory Kiddoo of Kiddoo Farms. “You go to one field and it’ll have 180-190 bushel of corn on it, and then you go 3 miles up the road and it makes 120.” nnn

Both Kiddoo and Thelen admitted the lack of rain will make this year’s harvest season tighten up their wallets.

“You’re talking on a decent year, it’s not even making half what it should,” Thelen

Photos by Carter Eckl/Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

Cory Kiddoo harvests corn on his 150-acre plot on the border of Union and Madison counties. Kiddoo thought rains late in the season wouldn’t help the crop much, “but it turned out that I think it really helped us quite a bit.” said. “It’s going to be hard to pay bills.

Luckily, crop insurance will kick in and at least maybe get back to break even, so you maybe can farm another year.”

Kiddoo’s outlook was a bit better.

“We got a better crop than we thought

we had,” Kiddoo said. “Some fields, like the one we are in right here, suffered quite a bit. A little bit disappointed in the yield here, but it is what it is.”

CONTINUED ON 184

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AG Mag

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HARVEST

Photos by Scott Vicker John Hoepker emerges from a field of corn in a John Deere combine in early November on the family farm southeast of Creston.

John, his brother, Bill, and nephews Jake and Joe work together in a seamless operation. LARGE PHOTO: Shawn Allen of Afton harvests soybeans in late October as the sun sets behind a pair of grain bins on Levi Buxton’s farm west of Creston.

John Hoepker kicks up a cloud of dust and smoke as he starts up a combine, relieving his brother, Bill, of combining duties on the Hoepker family farm in early November.

16 Fall 2017

IMAGES

Southwest Iowa Ag Mag Kenny Sobotka harvests a field of soybeans in mid-October in his Case IH combine north of Diagonal. Kenny had help from his father, Joe, driving the grain cart. According to the crop progress report released Oct. 16, Iowa was 32 percent harvested for soybeans, while the south central district was only 14 percent harvested.

Many farmers took advantage of that weekend’s weather to get back into the fields and catch up on harvesting.

The harvest work doesn’t end when the sun sets.

Here, Kyle Thelen works a field of soybeans by the light of his John Deere combine in the middle of the night east of Creston along U.S. Route 34.

AG Mag

17

4CONTINUED FROM 15 Kiddoo Farms is on the edge of Union and Madison counties, both of which experienced severe drought conditions from June through late August.

Rainfalls were well below the monthly average then, and drought conditions still exist in some areas.

“We was dry all summer,” Kiddoo said. “We got some late rains in August, September that really saved us more than we thought it was going to. We thought a lot of the crop was too far along for it to do a lot of good, but it turned out that I think it really helped us quite a bit.”

Kiddoo said he expected his crop to turn out at around 160 bushels of corn per acre, and in the low 50s per acre for soybeans.

“I’ll be luckily if I make 60 or 70 bushel at home,” Thelen said. “Where you talk to some guys they are running 250 bushel corn. You talk to one person and you hear it’s all over the place.”

The late-season rains in

Carter Eckl/Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

Kyle Thelen moves grain into a semi on his farm just outside of Creston. Thelen was expecting his corn yield to be only about 60 or 70 bushels per acre because of the summer drought. “You talk to some guys, they are running 250-bushel corn,” Thelen said. “... It’s all over the place.” both counties slowed the harvest by a day or two, but neither Kiddoo nor Thelen expected to fall behind.

Both farmers were hesitant to guess what the markets will look like when it comes time to sell.

“Flip a coin,” Thelen said.

“Last year we had a record crop. Everybody had a good crop. It’s kind of hard to see prices go up anymore

because we had a really good year last year.”

Kiddoo agreed.

“Nobody can guess what the grain markets are going to do,” he said. “Nationwide, I think there is a pretty good crop out there, so it’s going to be hard to see much future in grain prices going up. So it’s going to be hard to be profitable this year.”

The USDA, however, is in

the business of forecasting.

It estimated corn prices for 2017 to be at or lower thn $3.50 per bushel, with soybeans projected to be in the $9 to $9.50 range.

U.S. market year averages for corn have steadily decreased during the past several years, with 2011 to 2016 averages totaling $6.22, $6.89, $4.46, $3.70, $3.61 and $3.36, respectively.

The national market averages for soybeans are more varied with prices of $12.50, $14.40, $13, $10.10, $8.95 and $9.47 from 2011 to 2016, respectively.

More farmers are planting soybeans, a trend that’s likely to continue because of higher revenues compared to corn.

USDA estimates for the next 5 years don’t divert much from current levels in prices, but weather conditions and other factors could change that.

From 2017 to 2021 corn prices are projected to be $3.30, $3.35, $3.35, $3.45 and $3.50, and soybeans at $9.35, $9.40, $9.40, $9.45 and $9.45, respectively.

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What’s up at the elevator?

Harvest season super busy at Gavilon Grain in Creston

BY ALEX FELKER For Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

Harvest season is a busy time for everyone, but many might not realize what goes on behind the scenes at grain elevators like Gavilon Grain in Creston during this time of the year.

The grain company’s Creston location buys grain from farmers year-round, and ships it all around the world. Overseeing this process is facility manager Dean Michaelson.

“My main job is to keep the doors open,” Michaelson said, “so we can keep the grain flowing in and out of here. I help line up the trains, and sell the trains, so we can get the grain coming in and going out.”

CONTINUED ON 204

Grain piles up at Gavilon Grain’s Creston elevator. The facility can load a shuttle train with 450,000 bushels in about 10 hours. (Alex Felker/Southwest Iowa Ag Mag)

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AG Mag

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4CONTINUED FROM 19 Michaelson is from Lake Mills. After graduating from Iowa State University in 1990, he worked at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for three years before returning to Iowa and working at a private grain elevator. Michaelson then found work as a grain buyer in Nebraska before returning to Iowa in April 2002 and starting his current position as manager for the Creston co-op – then under different ownership.

“So our whole process is that trucks bring grain into our elevators,” Michaelson said, “and then we ship it out on 110-car trains. We also dry it and store it.”

Most of the corn Gavilon’s Creston elevator buys is sent to west Texas feed lots and California dairies. The beans it buys are either sent via conveyor belt to nearby CHS in Creston for crushing, or shipped by rail car to an export facility in Washington before being sent to China.

“Our semis come in with about 1,000 bushels of corn,” Michaelson said. “And in 10 hours, the facility can load a shuttle train with 450,000 bushels and send it out. It’s actually pretty impressive.”

At Gavilon’s Creston facility, semiloads of grain are weighed as they come in. Before being stored, samples of corn and beans are taken via probe to check

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Alex Felker/Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

A train is filled with corn at Gavilon Grain’s Creston elevator. The employee standing on the train is responsible for opening hatches and monitoring the filling process. Each rail car is filled in about three-and-a-half minutes, and an entire 110car train can be filled in about 10 hours. Most of the corn the elevator buys is sent to west Texas feed lots and California dairies. for moisture content and damage. A busy day during harvest season can mean more than 300 truckloads moving

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4CONTINUED FROM 20 “But the biggest challenge of my job is trying to line up the rail when harvest is coming, or even after harvest when the grain is flowing,” Michaelson said.

“Because you have to give notice before you can get a train, and there’s a challenge when you might get rain, and you don’t have enough grain, or maybe even you have too much grain and nowhere to put it. That’s really our biggest challenge.”

Gavilon can buy grain from farmers as much as a year and a half before harvest. One of several Gavilon employees who is responsible for this process is Julie Reed of Lenox.

“I’ve been doing this forever,” Reed said. “I was first with a family operation in Lenox, and then I came on board here in Creston and have been here forever.

“My day-to-day is most about buying grain. We try to do everything we can to get customers the most for their crops.

“And we can do some specialty packages, but it’s pretty much just that,” Reed said. “Sellers can either sell the day of, or put it on price later, and take the risk of the prices going down or up.

So everything that’s hauled in now has either already been sold, will be sold right off the truck, or they’ll take a gamble and pay storage to sell it later.”

Gavilon’s Creston elevator buys grain from all across the region – as far north

Alex Felker/Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

Scale operator Leslie Brumfield observes a grain truck as it weighs in at Gavilon’s.

The trucks are weighed, and the grain sampled for moisture content and damage. as Guthrie Center and as far to the south and west as some parts of Missouri and Nebraska.

Reed’s desk during harvest season is piled high with requests from potential sellers. She constantly has the Chicago Board of Trade numbers pulled up on her computer, and offers prices to walk-

in sellers, callers and anybody who is interested.

“And it’s just busier, now [during harvest season],” Reed said. “We’ll buy grain all year-round, between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., but it’s just busier around this season. And we love that – it’s our favorite time of the year.”

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AG Mag

21

FARMERS FORUM

South central Iowa farmers reflect on 2017 harvest

O

ur staff set out earlier this fall to gather thoughts from growers across south central Iowa that might be beneficial to others as the 2017 harvest season concludes and the clock begins to shift closer to the 2018 planting season.

Below are responses to two questions we posed farmers in five separate counties regarding their levels of success this year and their plan of attack for next year.

Dan Ryner, Winterset, Madison County What surprised you during the 2017 growing and harvesting season?

I was very surprised, and it just goes to show the technology we have in the seeds now – how they can develop a crop with less moisture.

Or, maybe what moisture we got was very timely. Yes, it was surprising and amazing. I just farmed a field Dan Ryner that averaged 183 bushels per acre of corn, and it was all basically dry. I didn’t really expect it to be that good.

What are you anticipating doing differently in 2018?

We obviously want to keep planting some of the newer seed technologies and varieties because I think that anything that comes out new, the newer the genetics the better. What am I going to do different? I might pray more. You go three miles south of Winterset and it’s a lot worse, but if you go north into Dallas County it’s better.

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Justin Lain, Corydon, Wayne County What surprised you during the 2017 growing and harvesting season?

Probably the yields – just the fact that it’s as good as it is considering how dry we were. Our yields are better than our longJustin Lain term average, and we had no rain the months of June and July. We had a little the beginning of August, then I think I only mowed my yard three times between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The corn is better-than-average to good, and that surprises me.

What are you anticipating doing differently in 2018?

I probably don’t anticipate doing anything differently.

Whether we get rain or not, that’s not something I can control.

You’ve just gotta get the crop in the ground and see what Mother Nature does after that.

Lance Bell, Leon, Decatur County What surprised you during the 2017 growing and harvesting season?

Due to the drought situation this past growing season, Lance Bell I guess I wasn’t really surprised by the yields.

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4CONTINUED FROM 22 I had spent some time scouting my fields this summer and was aware of what the crops looked like from the outer edges to the centers. I was surprised by the variability from field to field.

What are you anticipating doing differently in 2018?

Weather is a major factor in crop production and that is out of my control. We will continue to focus on hybrids that perform well in stressful situations.

Steve Crow, Truro, Warren County What surprised you during the 2017 growing and harvesting season?

The biggest surprise I had was where we’d get an extra Steve Crow half-inch [of rain] on one farm and what a difference that made. I just see a lot

Top

of haves and have nots by just being a mile away from the rain. There’s just a lot of terrible crops, especially south of Truro and near New Virginia. There’s some rains nobody got, and when you get south of Osceola it’s really bad.

What are you anticipating doing differently in 2018?

We sprayed a lot. It was too dry for some of the chemicals to work properly, so it put us behind the 8-ball.

We have to be very selective on what herbicides we pick, and we’re going to watch our corn population and try not to push the population so much. There’s no moisture in the ground and it’s hard and dry, so we don’t have any water in the jug for next year. Last year, we went into spring with a good, wet soil profile, and we don’t have that this year.

Chris Nelson, Greenfield, Adair County What surprised you during the 2017 growing

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Carter Eckl/Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

A combine drops grain into a cart at Kiddoo farms just outside of Lorimor. and harvesting season?

It was pretty variable this year and it isn’t ever as good as you want it to Chris be. It’s about Nelson what a guy would think it would be based on the weather we had. We had

a really dry last half of the summer and it just kind of depended on where the rain was or wasn’t. That made the biggest difference there.

What do you anticipate doing differently in 2018?

I guess we’ll just try to hold course and keep the pencil sharp and try to make things work at these low prices.

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AG Mag

23

Better together T

BY TYRA AUDLEHELM For Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

acy Cummings of Clarke County has been a farmer’s wife for four years. Her husband, Colby, boards and breaks horses through his busines, Rafter C. He also farms cattle, row crops corn, soybeans and custom bales hay.

Farm wives play important role during harvest

Colby anticipates it taking two months for him to be complete harvesting.

They have a daughter, Rowan, 2, who loves to ride in the combine with Colby’s dad, Terry.

Tacy’s a speech language pathology assistant at Green Hills AEA, she attends online college for her bachelor’s

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Harvest season means the extra work of delivering meals to the fields, and feeding and watering horses with her daughter’s help.

CONTINUED ON 254

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4CONTINUED FROM 24 Tacy has an appreciative husband, even though they are often apart because of their schedules.

“Having someone who will stand beside you and chop ice at 12 below or be there at midnight to pull the straight truck out can make all the difference,” Colby said. “She’s seen the calf that was the profit die, and the good crop dry up and burn, just like I have. She deals with all that, plus dogs barking all night, and still has mastered the art of getting our little girl involved in this lifestyle as much as the weather will allow.

“She is there for me 150 percent. I know she’s going to bring our children up to love every second of this fast-paced life we live, and to me that’s what it’s all about.”

“It’s difficult being apart so often and parenting, you can’t call for back-up when they’re out in the field,” Tacy said.

She does enjoy getting to ride along with her husband.

“It’s a good time to chat; you can solve the world’s problems from the front seat of a straight truck,” Tacy said. nnn Joanie Boggs of Decatur County has been a farmer’s wife of 43 years. Joe Boggs harvests corn and beans, as well as hay ground.

CONTINUED ON 264

Photos by Tyra Audlehelm/Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

Tacy Cummings waters a horse in their barn near Woodburn. ON PAGE 24 (LEFT): Colby and Tacy Cummings with their daughter, Rowan, 2. The Clarke County couple farms cattle, row crops, corn and soybeans, and custom bales hay. RIGHT: Joanie Boggs and her husband, Joe, farm corn and beans in Decatur County.

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AG Mag

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4CONTINUED FROM 24 For Joe, it can take between six weeks and two months to get done harvesting.

Joanie pitches in when help is needed and provides meals to her husband in the field.

Joanie’s favorite harvest memories are from the days when Joe farmed with his dad. She, her kids and her mother-in-law would take them meals as a family.

Earlier in their marriage, Joanie took care of their kids and had a couple of different part-time jobs so she didn’t have as much to do with harvest. Things changed six years ago when Joe’s father passed away and his mother moved to town. The responsibility of taking meals to Joe and helping more during harvest fell to Joanie.

She’s learned a lot in the past six years of being more involved.

“I don’t go to help him without a bottle of water, a book and a little food,” Joanie said.

She has learned from expe-

Tyra Audlehelm/Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

Joe and Joanie Boggs stand in a freshly combined corn field in front of their tractor. rience that a farmer being right back, or doing one more thing, can end up taking a long time. Joanie goes

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prepared to help and prepared to wait.

Harvest season brings long hours and great rewards.

“I love the way it looks,” Joanie said. “I love to see my husband working at this job.”

‘It’s just a huge task’ Maintaining local ag infrastructure is all about funding

BY ALEX FELKER For Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

A

lthough Iowa is 26th among U.S. states in total land area, its 90,000 miles of rural roads is fifth in the nation, according to the Iowa DOT’s most recent secondary road report. To add, Iowa is in the top 15 states in the nation with more than 24,000 bridges.

All this rural infrastructure can be difficult to maintain. But what’s not difficult to understand is the importance of maintaining it. These are the roads and bridges used to transport Iowa’s

produce to the market – meaning they’re the network of our state’s most important agricultural industries. nnn “The biggest thing is just maintaining the existing systems that we have,” said Nick Kauffman, Adair County engineer. “And obviously the biggest challenge is finding the funding to do so. We have a very large road system – there’s lots of bridges in Iowa, and it takes a lot of money to maintain them.”

Kauffman is responsible for the county’s more than 1,000 miles of secondary roads.

CONTINUED ON 284

Rock roads are costly to maintain. Iowa has more than 90,000 miles of secondary roads to maintain.

(Alex Felker/Southwest Iowa Ag Mag)

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4CONTINUED FROM 27 According to Kauffman, road maintenance is all about funding. County governments use almost entirely local tax dollars, with some help from the state to maintain their roads and complete new projects. “We try to keep the roads as best we can, within the budget we have,� Kauffman said. “And the bridges also – we try to do the best we can with what we have. We’re constantly trying to be more efficient and do a better job with what we’ve got.�

Counties have a variety of local options for funds. Vehicle license fees, property taxes, local-option sales taxes and tax-increment financing are all used to raise money for maintenance and repair of a county’s road systems.

Additional state dollars come from farm-to-market dollars, road-use tax funds and gas taxes. Funds from the federal government can also be available for certain projects and uses. “But of course, nobody likes taxes,�

Kauffman said. “So it’s a very difficult balance. And It’s just the sheer size of our county. We’ve got 794 miles of rock roads. It’s a lot of work to maintain all those miles. Putting rock on them, blading them – and that’s just the rock.

We’ve got another roughly 100 miles paved. It’s just a huge task.�

Union County Supervisor Ron Riley also deals with rural road maintenance on a weekly basis. And he agrees with Kauffman’s synopsis. “We basically do what we can with the money we have,� Riley said. “But we fall behind, especially on bridges, because a lot of times we can only do one to two bridges a year. “As far as how to prioritize, you look to your farm-to-market roads as your more highly traveled roads in the county, and you try to keep them as good as you can.�

Farm-to-market roads connect rural or agricultural areas to market towns.

They are especially important during harvest season. “Specifically, you need bridges that are close to legal weight,� Riley said, “so you

Scott Vicker/Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

Pictured is a 3-ton bridge on 210th Street south of Creston in rural Union County. According to Union County Supervisor Ron Riley, rural bridges are integral in defining which routes farmers can take to get their produce to market.

“We try to keep the roads as best we can, within the budget we have. And the bridges also – we try to do the best we can with what we have. We’re constantly trying to be more efficient and do a better job with what we’ve got.�

Alex Felker/Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

Maintenance for gravel roads is largely provided for by local-option tax dollars. can take your equipment across those bridges rather than having to go out of your way to get to your destination. “And as far as the roads, it’s just that the equipment today is wider and heavier

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Kim and Daniel Curry and family take a break from selling apples and honey at their stand at the Creston Farmers Market in September. The Curry family owns and operates Clover Hill Orchard near Redding, where they grow apples and pumpkins.

Agritourism cropping up around southwest Iowa

BY SCOTT VICKER For Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

W

hen Daniel Curry’s service to the United States Army came to a close, he wanted an inexpensive way to get his family involved in agriculture.

Meanwhile, Lincoln Calvin of Lenox noticed on Facebook families from the area were traveling hundreds of miles to visit pumpkin patches in the fall because there wasn’t one in the area.

Both Curry and Calvin arrived at similar conclusions – Curry started an orchard and pumpkin patch on his land near Redding in Ringgold County, while Calvin opened a pumpkin patch on a parcel of land he purchased in Lenox.

Curry and Calvin find themselves among a growing trend of agritourism farms.

“I take it for granted that kids can pet goats and feed the sheep, feed little baby calves and pet them,” Calvin said. “I think everybody can do it. It’s amazing, even though we are in rural Iowa, how many kids have never done it. The kids absolutely love it – everything about the corn, the animals, the whole thing. I can see more and more people coming to it

[agritourism] because there’s getting to be less and less family farms out there.”

Calvin owns cattle, but had never done any farming prior to opening Twisted Stalk in 2015. He studied how to grow pumpkins for a month before he planted any on the small piece of land he owned on the edge of Lenox.

Now, he estimates he grows more than 1,500 pumpkins (on the light side) and also grows corn for a corn maze.

Curry planted 300 apple trees at the beginning of 2013 and added 1,100 more trees in 2014 and 1,000 more in 2015 and 2016 each.

His apple trees are planted in rows of 100 in a tall spindle method, which allows Curry to plant rows 12 feet apart with trees three feet apart in each row, running north and south. Once trees reach the height of the posts in each row, Curry trims them. With the height of the tree and the spacing of the rows, trees should never be shaded out.

Curry’s orchard includes 16 varieties of apples, from Zestar to EverCrisp, a hybrid of Fuji apples and honeycrisp apples, specifically designed to grow well in the Midwest.

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AG Mag

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4CONTINUED FROM 29 “I really wanted to farm, and getting into commercial production ag costs a lot of money to get tractors and combines,” Curry said. “I thought, ‘What’s something we could do that’s small scale and we can have a lot of fun and get the family involved in?’ That was the biggest thing – I wanted something I could get the kids involved in.”

Curry added a pumpkin patch to Clover Hill Orchard three years ago and said this year’s pumpkin harvest was the best he’s had.

He plans to add more activities for families to participate in over the coming years.

“It’s a lot easier to have people come out here, travel to you and they can pick the apples than for us to pick, sort and drive to the farmers market,” Curry said. “That’s why we want to add the rest of those attractions. That’s basically our goal – the agritourism, the agritainment – the activities and games to go with the apples to keep people here.”

Calvin also has plans to expand the number of activities offered at Twisted Stalk, which already includes hay rides, a corn maze, corn pit, petting zoo and zip line – all built by Calvin.

“More activities, more things for kids to do, just trying to find different

Photo by Alex Felker/Southwest Iowa Ag Mag

Hudson Shane, 7, of Clarinda, flies through the air on a zipline in October at Twisted Stalks pumpkin patch in Lenox. The pumpkin patch has a corn pit, corn maze, petting zoo and go-karts among other traditional fall activities. activities for everybody to do and add more for the kids. And not necessarily just kids, it’s fun for all ages, something that as a family they get to do,” Calvin said.

“It’s going to grow. It’ll be bigger,” he

added with a smile and a hearty laugh.

“I’m the biggest kid there is there. So it’ll be bigger and better. The sky is kind of the limit on it. You can do whatever you want to do with it games wise and all that.”

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AG Mag

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