Resources

All of our resources are available from this page. You can also visit the specific pages for individual topics to get focused information on those areas.

Conservation

Conservation encompasses many areas - soil, water, and crop considerations all play a part. We offer a variety of practical resources to help you find the answers to your questions.

"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"

Conservation Resources

Cover Crops

Cover crops are a great way to improve soil health. Many Iowa farmers are adding cover crops to their crop rotations so soil stays covered when the fields are not growing other crops. Cover crops also improve soil organic matter and slow water runoff.

Farmers have many questions about incorporating cover crops. Most asked questions include: what kinds of plants can be used, when and how to seed and when and how to terminate. With field days and workshops, Iowa Learning Farms strives to help farmers, and other interested people, find the answers to these questions and more.

Cover Crop Resources

Edge-of-Field

Edge-of-field practices play a crucial role in meeting the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy goals of improving water quality through reducing nitrogen and phosphorus in Iowa's water bodies. Edge-of-field practices involve drainage water management, bioreactors, buffers, saturated buffers, denitrifying wetlands, terraces and sediment control.

Edge-of-Field Resources

Relay Intercropping

Relay intercropping is a multi-year, multi-species cropping system that allows for 3 harvestable crops (small grain, soybean, corn) in 2 years.

View recent webinars, blogs and publications from ongoing research farm and on-farm demonstrations.

Relay Intercropping

Field Day Toolkit

These toolkits are the product of Iowa Learning Farms’ many years of planning and hosting field day events across the state of Iowa, as well as our newer Conservation On Tap gatherings. While ILF utilizes many different outreach approaches, the importance of farmer-to-farmer interactions cannot be overstated. Field days do matter!

Field Day Toolkit

Conservation On Tap Toolkit

Webinar Toolkit

Iowa Learning Farms (ILF) has successfully produced its Conservation Webinar Series since 2011, offering opportunities for online audiences to learn about the latest research and implementation efforts of conservation-related practices. To aid other organizations in producing webinars, ILF has created this toolkit which includes information on planning, promoting, designing, hosting, archiving, and evaluating a webinar, based on experience gained from producing and archiving hundreds of webinars.

Webinar Toolkit

Recent Resources

May 13, 2026: Using Corncobs to Improve Nitrate Removal in Bioreactors

May 13, 2026: Using Corncobs to Improve Nitrate Removal in Bioreactors

With Taylor Vroman

Webinars, Conservation, Water Conservation, Cover CropsAlena WhitakerMay 20, 2026

May 13, 2026: Soil Nitrogen Fate, Availability, and Utility: Are All Cover Crop Species Created Equal?

May 13, 2026: Soil Nitrogen Fate, Availability, and Utility: Are All Cover Crop Species Created Equal?

With Shalamar Armstrong

Webinars, Conservation, Water Conservation, Cover CropsAlena WhitakerMay 13, 2026

May 6, 2026: Saturated Buffers: Proven Practice with New Surprises

May 6, 2026: Saturated Buffers: Proven Practice with New Surprises

With Ehsan Ghane

Webinars, Conservation, Water Conservation, Edge of FieldAlena WhitakerMay 6, 2026

April 29, 2026: Perennial Small Grains: Kernza as a Model for Crop Development and Ecosystem Service Improvement

April 29, 2026: Perennial Small Grains: Kernza as a Model for Crop Development and Ecosystem Service Improvement

With Jessica Gutknecht

Webinars, Conservation, Soil Conservation, Water Conservation, Conservation CropsAlena WhitakerApril 30, 2026

April 22, 2026: Water Quality Improvements Following Tallgrass Prairie Reconstruction: 30-year Trends at the Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge

April 22, 2026: Water Quality Improvements Following Tallgrass Prairie Reconstruction: 30-year Trends at the Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge

With Elliot Anderson and Keith Schilling

Webinars, Conservation, Soil Conservation, Water ConservationAlena WhitakerApril 22, 2026

April 15, 2026: Beyond the Basics: A Conversation with Wesley Everman

April 15, 2026: Beyond the Basics: A Conversation with Wesley Everman

With Wesley Everman

Webinars, Conservation, Soil Conservation, Cover CropsAlena WhitakerApril 15, 2026

April 8, 2026: Should We Treat Manure Like Human Wastewater?

April 8, 2026: Should We Treat Manure Like Human Wastewater?

With Dan Andersen

Webinars, ConservationAlena WhitakerApril 9, 2026

April 1, 2026: Honey Bees: Friends for Agriculture, Foes for Conservation?

April 1, 2026: Honey Bees: Friends for Agriculture, Foes for Conservation?

With Amy Toth

Webinars, ConservationAlena WhitakerApril 1, 2026

Field Day Archive: Co-benefits and Possible Unintended Consequences of Restoring Wetlands for Nutrient Reduction

Field Day Archive: Co-benefits and Possible Unintended Consequences of Restoring Wetlands for Nutrient Reduction

Field Day ArchiveLiz RipleyMarch 26, 2026

March 25, 2026: Beyond the Basics: A Conversation with Alison Robertson

March 25, 2026: Beyond the Basics: A Conversation with Alison Robertson

With Alison Robertson

Webinars, Conservation, Soil Conservation, Cover CropsAlena WhitakerMarch 25, 2026

March 18, 2026: Cereal Rye Cover Crops for Weed Control: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

March 18, 2026: Cereal Rye Cover Crops for Weed Control: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

With Debalin Sarangi

Webinars, Conservation, Soil Conservation, Cover CropsAlena WhitakerMarch 18, 2026

Field Day Archive: Evaluating Manure Application and Cover Crop Planting Timing to Maximize Water Quality Benefits in Corn

Field Day Archive: Evaluating Manure Application and Cover Crop Planting Timing to Maximize Water Quality Benefits in Corn

Field Day ArchiveLiz RipleyMarch 12, 2026

March 11, 2026: Conservation Tillage Effects on Soil Health and Carbon

March 11, 2026: Conservation Tillage Effects on Soil Health and Carbon

With Humberto Blanco

Webinars, Conservation, Soil Conservation, Cover CropsAlena WhitakerMarch 11, 2026

March 4, 2026: Assessing Sediment Sources, Nutrient Storage, and Long-term Sustainability of Farm Ponds in Southern Iowa

March 4, 2026: Assessing Sediment Sources, Nutrient Storage, and Long-term Sustainability of Farm Ponds in Southern Iowa

With Matthew T. Streeter and Calvin Wolter

Webinars, Conservation, Soil Conservation, Water ConservationAlena WhitakerMarch 4, 2026

Field Day Archive: Forestry On Tap: Local Wood Resources, Bioreactors, and Microbiome

Field Day Archive: Forestry On Tap: Local Wood Resources, Bioreactors, and Microbiome

Field Day ArchiveLiz RipleyFebruary 26, 2026

February 25, 2026: The Present, Past, and Future of Soil Erosion in the Midwestern United States

February 25, 2026: The Present, Past, and Future of Soil Erosion in the Midwestern United States

With Isaac Larsen

Webinars, Conservation, Soil ConservationAlena WhitakerFebruary 25, 2026

February 18, 2026: Beyond the Basics: A Conversation with Mark Licht

February 18, 2026: Beyond the Basics: A Conversation with Mark Licht

With Mark Licht

Webinars, Conservation, Cover CropsAlena WhitakerFebruary 18, 2026

Field Day Archive: Exploring Prairie Establishment and Management With Carl Kurtz

Field Day Archive: Exploring Prairie Establishment and Management With Carl Kurtz

Field Day ArchiveLiz RipleyFebruary 12, 2026