Iowa Learning Farms, in partnership with the Iowa Nutrient Research Center, and Conservation Learning Group, is hosting a free virtual field day focused on redefining the field edge with the use of perennial vegetation on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 1 p.m. Floyd County farmer Dennis Staudt, and Mark Licht, assistant professor in agronomy and cropping systems specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, will lead the discussion.
The prairie pothole region starts in central Iowa and runs northwest into Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota and across the plains of Canada, covering nearly 173 million total acres. Even with subsurface drainage systems in place, many of these small prairie potholes are associated with high production risk and often represent the lowest profitability areas within a field.
A CLG project led by Licht and funded by North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education is working with Staudt and three additional Iowa farmers to convert marginal land areas to perennial vegetation to evaluate the return on investment and explore the potential benefits to water quality, soil health and wildlife habitat.
To read more about this event see the press release on ISU Extension and Outreach News.
To participate in the live virtual field day at 1 p.m. on Sept. 10, click this URL: https://iastate.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUpduihpj8iE9ZHcjpsenc2DWQILG41wg0D or visit www.iowalearningfarms.org/page/events and click “Join Live Virtual Field Day”.
Or, join from a dial-in phone line by dialing: +1 312 626 6799 or +1 646 876 9923; Meeting ID: 914 1198 4892.
The field day will be recorded and archived on the ILF website so that it can be watched at any time.