Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge

On Sunday we visited the Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge in Jasper County, Iowa. This wildlife refuge aims to restore the tall grassland prairie that was once the predominant ecosystem of Iowa. The refuge was first bought as a 3,600 acre piece of land by Iowa Power and Light (originally intended to be a nuclear power plant) but was later bought by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service.

Terry and Diane working together planting native Iowa prairie vegetation

Big buffalo grazing on some tasty grass

Today the refuge consists of 8,659 acres and hosts a herd of 75 buffalo and 25 elk (We were lucky enough to see buffalo up close as they were grazing right next to the road!). The facility has a very informative museum that educates both children and adults about the prairie ecosystem and also has an excellent bookstore. While walking the 2 mile path we met a very nice volunteering couple, Terry and Diane, who were helping in the prairie restoration by planting various native vegetation along the path such as leadplant. The restoration process is ongoing so make sure to lend a helping hand if you're ever in the area!

Joey

Iowa State University - Department of Agronomy - Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy with Dr. Antonio Mallarino - Saturday, May 17th, 2014

Antonio Mallarino explaining the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy

Agricultural land is a major contributor to the balance of nutrients entering waterways and to the degradation of water quality. We visited a professor of soil fertility, Dr. Antonio Mallarino, at Iowa State University to discuss Iowa’s nutrient reduction strategy. Dr. Mallarino’s research group and colleagues have contributed to the understanding of the fate of nitrogen and phosphorus applied as fertilizer to agricultural systems.

The rather ambitious goal of the Iowa nutrient reduction strategy is to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus being transported to the Gulf of Mexico from Iowa by 45%. Dr. Mallarino described the efforts being made by an interdisciplinary team of scientists, government officials (local to federal) and producers to improve the quantity and quality of data that can be used to guide and track the effectiveness of management practices that mitigate nutrient loss from agricultural land.
- Andrew

Farmer’s Cooperative Company, Shelia Hebenstreit, Gowrie and Farnhamville, IA - Friday, May 16th, 2014

Sheila Hebenstreit, Field Agronomist, (in center) providing a tour of the seed treatment facility. 

Touring the "bullet", which is the storage container for bulk anhydrous ammonia  fertilizer.
The small tank in the background is a "nurse tank", which is used to transport the anhydrous to the field
where it will be injected into the ground. The anhydrous is 82% nitrogen and is the cheapest form of
nitrogen fertilizer.  

Enjoying the sunshine at the grain elevator.

A view of the 9 million bushel capacity FC grain elevator in Farnhamville location.  

Andrew and Jen sizing up the grain silo. 

“Together We Can” is the slogan for FC or Farmer’s Co-op, a fertilizer and grain dealer that his multiple locations across Iowa. At FC’s location in Gowrie, Iowa we toured their plant that sold all types of fertilizers, chemicals, in addition to renting the machinery that applies fertilizers and chemicals. Anhydrous ammonia is the most popular form of nitrogen added to fields and is done by dragging “knives” through the field about 8 inches below the surface where a hose can then inject the gaseous ammonia into the ground along with N-serve, a product that inhibits the nitrification of the NH3.

The Gowrie plant also sells seed units, a seed unit consists of 140,000 seeds for soybeans and 80,000 seeds for corn. About 1 to 1.2 units are needed to plant an acre of soybeans and 0.4 units are needed to plant an acre of corn. With about 10,000 soybean units and 5,000 corn units on hand at any point, they are able to provide a lot of seeds to farmers! This location also stores 8 massive herbicide tanks that contain just less than 40,000 gallons of herbicides such as Round Up.

After touring the Gowrie location for about an hour and a half we then took a short ride over to Farnhamville, IA where FC owns a grain storage unit. This large grain and fertilizer plant can house over 9 million bushels at full capacity! After seeing a literal mountain of corn in the flat house storage unit I was shocked to hear that the corn they collect only comes from an 8 mile radius around the plant. The scale of agriculture really began to come together when the manager of the grainery  began talking of 3 other grain storage units that they compete with, all within a 20-mile radius. The grain is dumped into a pit and then a computer controls an auger that moves the grain to any silo on site. Once the grain is stored in a silo it can be shipped via truck or onto a railcar by an overhanging grain tube that hangs above the railtracks that run right next to the plant. This location also has a large storage house for fertilizers that are stored in concrete rooms and can then be transported by augers and belts above the storage bins, mixed, and dumped from an overhanging tube into a waiting truck below.

-         - Joey

John Deere Combine Factory, East Moline, IL - Thursday, May 15th, 2014

S690 combine with 18-row corn head; cost = $700,000

Shortly after our stops in Ohio, we traveled to Illinois to the John Deere Harvester Works factory to watch combines being created. The tour we took was an hour and a half truck ride through the 4-mile covered factory. I never could have dreamed of all the work and thought that goes into a piece of machinery like that! We saw everything from how they cut the steel pieces to how they paint the final product. The most advanced version of the combine can harvest about 30 acres an hour… yep, you got it! 30 acres an hour. Amazing technology, but also extremely expensive – the top-of-the-line combine (S690) with 18-row corn header costs $700,000. We sat in an S690 in the lobby of the factory; it was a long climb to the cab. The main takeaway from this stop was putting into perspective how capital intensive farming is today, and the vast scale of American agriculture.

But… Nothin’ Runs Like a Deere! Yee-Haw! 

- Molly