Crops

"How resilient are our lands here in the Midwest? What is our ability to retain productivity if we have another long drought or continual flooding? Will people still be farming in Iowa 1,500 years from now? Or even 200 years from now? The decisions we make today about our natural resources will affect agricultural production 50 years from now."

--from the video "The Work of Our Hands"

View the Iowa Learning Farms video The Work of Our Hands (9:45) which discusses the relationship of societies and agriculture, historically and today.

View other Iowa Learning Farms videos on the Videos page of this website.

Read the Iowa Learning Farms' publication series "It Begins With You."

Economics of Residue
The Cost of Soil Erosion
Transition to No-Till
Strip-tillage Crop Management
A Whole Farm Approach
Cellulosic Biofuels and Your Farm
Cover Crops (available as part of the Cover Crops DVD)

To receive printed copies of these handouts, email Iowa Learning Farms: ilf@iastate.edu

Other information sheets available:
Language of Conservation
Urban Conservation Practices
Iowa Watersheds
Water Quality and Conservation Practices
and eight supplement sheets (by soil region). See the "Water" section on this web site for the supplements.

Resources for Cover Crops

Small Grain Cover Crops for Corn and Soybean (PDF)
Iowa State University Extension publication

Midwest Cover Crops Council web site offers excellent resources for cover crops education as well as networking opportunities for cover crop users.  

Iowa Learning Farms/Practical Farmers of Iowa Cover Crop Study
"Several studies have been conducted but few have involved planting the cover crop in the same location in consecutive years. This five-year study will measure the yield of corn and soybeans in cover and no cover treatments to determine if the cover crop has a negative effect on the cash grain yield."

Practical Farmers of Iowa web site has several reports on various aspects of cover crops.

Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture houses the Iowa Cover Crops Working Group page that lists several additional resources.