Student’s Thoughts and Thanks Of all the evaluation methods Water Rocks! utilizes, one of the most rewarding is that of the students through hand-written thank-you notes. Check out some of the notes received by the exceptional students that WR! visited in the 2024-25 school year. Find more…

Firsthand Insights From Iowa Farmers Though many people have helped Iowa Learning Farms grow over the past 21 years, the program’s farmer partners have played an especially important part. By hosting field days, taking part in research, and acting as advocates for conservation in their…

Banking of Mitigation Credits to Enhance Water Quality Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, Sep. 24, featuring Jake Wilson, PWS, environmental scientist, Shive-Hattery. A certified professional wetland scientist (PWS), Wilson collaborates regularly with state…

Banking of Mitigation Credits to Enhance Water Quality Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, Sep. 24, featuring Jake Wilson, PWS, environmental scientist, Shive-Hattery. A certified professional wetland scientist (PWS), Wilson collaborates regularly with state…

Strategies to Manage Cover Crops to Improve Soil Health What does it take for cover crops to improve soil health? As Dr. Sabrina Ruis explained in our most recent webinar, there are many interconnected factors at play when it comes to improving the soil properties like microbial biomass and…

Rethinking Iowa’s Drainage: Building Resilience with Two-Stage Ditches Dr. Sara Winnike McMillan | Iowa State University ProfessorAgricultural & Biosystems Engineering After a heavy rain, Iowa’s network of drainage ditches goes to work. Water infiltrates into the soil, flows to subsurface tile…

Preserving Both Land and Legacy  A farm may simply be a piece of land to some, but for Gene Niewoehner, it meant much more. Situated in rural Fayette County, the Niewoehner farm offers a view into the past through its well-maintained 19th century buildings and antique farm equipment. Gene,…

Biomass Production, Cover Crops and Crop Yields – An Important Balancing Act Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, Sep. 17, featuring Sabrina Ruis, Ph.D., research soil scientist, USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment. Ruis…

Its Corn! Along with Bacteria to Clean Up Forever Chemicals PCBS or polychlorinated biphenyls, are not good to have in our environment. The main reason? They are carcinogenic! Traditionally they have been removed by dredging and properly disposing of contaminated soil or incinerating it. Both can…

Leveling Up Learning with Water Rocks! Resources Although WR! school visits provide a starting point for young people’s journey in conservation, each lesson is further supplemented by the various educational resources offered on the WR! website, www.waterrocks.org. The wide range of resources,…

Migration, Milkweed, and Maize: A Snapshot of Iowans’ Attitudes and Perceptions of Monarch Butterfly Conservation Earlier this year, the Iowa Learning Farms hosted a series of pollinator and monarch habitat workshops in cooperation with the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium. Funded by the Iowa…

A Winning Combination Against Forever Chemicals (PCBs) Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, Sep. 10, featuring David Ramotowski, Ph.D. candidate, Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Iowa. Ramotowski’s research focuses on using bacteria to clean up…

Dissolved Nitrous Oxide is Not a Laughing Matter Dissolved nitrous oxide (dN2O) is a greenhouse gas. It, like nitrate, can leave agricultural fields via the tile lines. How much nitrous oxide is leaving the field? Does that amount change if cover crops are used or fertilizer is applied using split…

A Record Year for Water Quality Education The 2024-25 school year again showed great demand for WR! school visits with 463 requests, demonstrating the continued demand for natural resource education across Iowa. Highlighted below are some key findings from the 2024-25 Water Rocks! Evaluation…

Calling Iowa Landowners – Help Track the Monarch Migration! As thousands of monarch butterflies make their journey south to Mexico this fall, researchers with the Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium (IMCC) are calling on Iowa landowners to help document this remarkable migration. Each fall,…

Managing N Loss While Maintaining Corn Yields Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, Sep. 3, featuring Luciano Alves de Oliveira, assistant professor of water management and livestock waste management, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Oliveira’s research…

Planning for the Future of Your Farm In last week’s webinar we were joined by Mason Burkhart, legal counsel, Iowa State University Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation, to discuss all the processes to account for when planning for a farm estate transition. You can watch the full…

Building a Legacy of Benefitting the Land Since childhood, Barbara and Stanley Johnson were both instilled with a deep respect for Iowa’s natural resources. Growing up just a few miles apart in rural Page County, the couple later married and began not only their family, but their conservation…

Planning for a Smooth Farm Estate Transition Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, Aug. 27, featuring Mason Burkhart, legal counsel, Iowa State University Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation. Burkhart specializes as a resource for farmers with issues…

Using Precision Data to Boost Profits As precision agriculture continues to advance, and the amount of on-farm data increases, researchers continue to look for ways to utilize this data to improve profitability. In last week’s webinar, Karina Schoengold shares her team’s findings on, “Optimizing…

Over the River and Through the Woods, Back to School We Go On Monday, students all over Iowa are returning to school. In a few short weeks once the students have settled in, Water Rocks! is returning to school as well. Growing up Back-to-School meant new shoes and backpacks, seeing friends again,…

Planning for Successful Cover Crops Ethan Thies | Conservation Field SpecialistIowa State University Extension and OutreachMidwest Cover Crops Council Mid-August is the beginning of the seeding window for successful cover crop seedings of common cover crop species in a corn and bean rotation.…

Precision Conservation Profitability Improvement Potential Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, Aug. 20, featuring Karina Schoengold, professor, agricultural economics and associate director, Nebraska Water Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Schoengold is…

The Relationship Between the Weather and Farming We’ve all heard the phrase, “It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the wind... or humidity, or if there was a breeze.” The weather affects how we experience each day. Its trends for the last 50 years and forecast predictions affect planting dates,…

RSVP for a Field Day Near You! We would love to see you at one of our upcoming field days. Please RSVP to Liz Ripley at 515-294-5429 or email [email protected] to reserve your seat today! August 27, 2025: Cover Crop Drone Seeding Field Day10:30am-12:30pmMathis Farm2210 B AveShenandoah, IA 51601…

Supporting On-Farm Decisions with Climate Tools Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, Aug. 13, featuring Madelynn Wuestenberg, agricultural climatology extension specialist, Iowa State University. Wuestenberg’s work with Iowa State University Extension and…

Earworms: A Not-So-Catchy Tune In last week’s webinar we were joined by Ashley Dean, extension specialist for field crop entomology, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, to discuss corn earworms and the issues they cause for sweet corn, as well as methods for management of these pests.…

2025 Tri-State Drainage Research Forum Excited to announce registration is open for the IA-MN-SD Drainage Research Forum. This year’s event will be held in Brookings, SD on September 9-10, 2025. Features of this year’s program include field tours on Tuesday beginning at 3:00 p.m. and ending with…

Protecting Sweet Corn from Earworms Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, Aug. 6, featuring Ashley Dean, extension specialist for field crop entomology, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Dean assists in research at the Soybean Research Laboratory at…

On the Fence about Prairie Strip Adoption? Prairie Strips are a conservation practice that protects the soil and water by reducing sediment movement by 95% and reducing nutrient movement, phosphorus by 90% and nitrogen by 85%. How? By converting 10% of your row-crop field into prairie grasses and…

Iowa Through a New Lens Today’s guest blog post comes from water resources intern Amelia Hesse.  Originally from Clarinda, Iowa, Hesse is majoring in Biological Systems Engineering at Iowa State University. As a born and raised Iowan, I grew up exploring the state’s outdoors. Whether it was…

The Prairie Strip Continuum from Practice to Persistence Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, July 30, featuring Derek Franklin, Ph.D., postdoctoral research associate, Iowa State University. As a social scientist, Franklin talks with farmers to better…

Understanding Farmer Management on Vulnerable Land Does a landowner’s perception of their land as vulnerable affect conservation practice adoption and nutrient management decisions? That’s the question Andrew Hillman, a Ph.D. candidate with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is trying to answer.…

Covering New Ground: From Concrete to Cover Crops Today’s guest blog post comes from water resources intern Will Stiles.  Originally from Urbandale, Iowa, Stiles is majoring in Chemical Engineering at the University of Iowa. On my first day as a Water Rocks! intern, the question “What are cover…

Join Us for an August Field Day! We would love to see you at one of our upcoming field days. Please RSVP to Liz Ripley at 515-294-5429 or email [email protected] to reserve your seat today! -Liz Ripley

Mitigating Nutrient Losses from Vulnerable Landscapes Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, July 25, featuring Andrew Hillman, Ph.D. candidate, University of Wisconsin-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. Hillman’s research focuses on the…

Entire Worlds Beneath Our Feet In last week’s webinar we were joined by  Roland (Roli) Wilhelm, assistant professor of soil microbiology, Department of Agronomy, Purdue University, to discuss soil microbiome testing, as well as some of the biological indicators used to assess soil health. You can…

Updates from the Field: Relay Intercropping Edition In late June and early July our team and interns were busy traveling the state to collect soil nitrate samples and count earthworms at our farmer partner relay intercropping demonstration sites. The data collected will be analyzed after the…

Let’s Talk Tillage For millennia, the practice of tillage had been widely used in agriculture to prepare the ground for a variety of crops. Although concept is essentially the same, we have come a long way from the ancient wood plows that once used to turn the soil. Advances in technology have…

Exploring Alternatives to Cereal Rye Ahead of Corn: Hairy Vetch, Camelina, and More Mark Licht | Iowa State University Associate Professor andExtension Cropping Systems Specialist Over the past year, one of the most frequently asked questions I’ve received about cover crops is: “What alternatives…

Soil Microbiome Testing: Today and Tomorrow Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, July 16, featuring Roland (Roli) Wilhelm, assistant professor of soil microbiology, Department of Agronomy, Purdue University. Wilhelm leads the Managed Ecosystem Microbial…

Reducing Carbon Losses with Cover Crops As a widely used conservation practice, cover crops are known for their many benefits including reduced soil erosion, improved soil health, weed suppression, and benefitting water quality. In addition to all these benefits to the land and water, the question…

Urban Conservation Methods: How to Live Green in a Concrete Jungle Today’s guest blog post comes from water resources intern Sarah Crowley.  Originally from Bettendorf, Iowa, Crowley is majoring in Environmental Science with a minor in urban studies at Iowa State University. On the first day of my…

Organic Carbon Loss Quantification and Positive Cover Crop Contributions Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, July 9, featuring Wenjuan Huang, assistant professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University. Huang’s research…

Adoption vs. disadoption: The struggle is real In the conservation world, it’s no secret that a ton of time, effort, energy, and dollars go into supporting practice adoption on our agricultural lands, ranging from in-field practices like no-till and cover crops to edge-of-field practices like…

Testing the Waters: A Field Day in Conservation Today’s guest blog post comes from water resources intern Adelaide Wolfe.  Originally from Bettendorf, Iowa, Wolfe is majoring in Environmental Science at Iowa State University. As a kid growing up on the Mississippi River, surprisingly enough, water…

Conservation Practice Adoption and Disadoption Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, July 2, featuring Alejandro Plastina, Ph.D., center director, Rural and Farm Finance Policy Analysis Center, University of Missouri. Plastina’s research focuses on agricultural…

Balancing Iowa’s Phosphorus Budget Iowa’s relationship with phosphorus is complicated. On one hand, it allows the state to boost economic output by improving crop production, but phosphorus runoff can also lead to issues like algal blooms, which negatively impact water quality. All told,…

Monarch Conservation: More Than Just Milkweed When people think of monarch butterflies, they often think of milkweed. And rightly so. Monarch caterpillars feed exclusively on milkweed and cannot survive without it. But the monarch-milkweed connection only covers half of the story; the caterpillar…

Understanding Inputs and Outputs Affecting Iowa’s Phosphorus Budget Please join us for the Iowa Learning Farms webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, June 25, featuring Elliot Anderson, assistant research scientist, University of Iowa. Anderson’s research centers on the statistical analysis and modeling…