Move to Iowa bene1047297ts family land

FAMILY TIES Amy and Jason Boyer (back right) take a break from their Des Moines farmers marketbooth ldquoThe Harvest Barnrdquo with their children (from left) daughter Kaitlyn and sons Konrad and Kacey

By KATHLEEN CHESTER

URBAN sprawl andhousing developmentswere driving up the cost

of farmland in their home state ofPennsylvania so Jason and AmyBoyer set their sights on IowaNewly married they settled inWeldon a small town in southernIowa that is divided by the countylines of Clarke and Decatur Itwas 1994 when the couple leftGettysburg where they wereboth born and raised and theyrsquovebeen farming in Clarke CountyIowa ever since

Southern Iowa offered the op-portunity to have a combinationoperation they were looking for500 owned and rented acres toraise cattle hay and pasture andsome row crops But Jason soondiscovered that heavy rain eventswash away the soil on slopingground so theyrsquove been imple-menting conservation practiceson their land all along to preservethe soil and protect the water

ldquoYou canrsquot stop runoff 100but what comes off the 1047297eld runsback into our water supplyrdquo henotes ldquoWersquove had some prettysporadic weather and heavy rainsin recent years so we needed toput in additional measures ofsome type to keep the soil on theground where it started mdash not justfor me but for the next generationand the generation after thatrdquo

The Boyers have installed onegrade stabilization structure 17sediment control basins and awatering facility and they havefenced heavy-use areas as partof the Rathbun Land and WaterAlliancersquos Protect Rathbun LakeProject a project that works withlandowners in the Rathbun Lakewatershed to stop the delivery ofcontaminants to the lake

Get landlords involvedEnvironmental specialist VelvetBuckingham who coordinatesthe Protect Rathbun Lake Projectsays this farming couple pro-

motes conservation practiceson both the farms they own andon the farms they rent even per-suading the landowners fromwhom they rent to install ter-races ldquoThe measures this familyhas installed reduce sedimentdelivery to Rathbun Lake by 163tons per year and by 896 poundsof phosphorus per yearrdquo saysBuckingham

In 2013 the alliance recog-nized the Boyers as Rathbun LakeProtectors for their soil-saving ac-tions They were nominated bythe Clarke County Soil and WaterConservation District

Jason notes that the more soilyou keep on the 1047297eld the lessgoes into the lake but you haveto work at it ldquoWersquove been doingmore no-tilling and trying to keepland in pasture longer Wersquove alsoplanted 1047297lter strips below therow crops at the end of the 1047297eldand we donrsquot row crop the highlyerodible land A few years ago we1047297rst planted rye as a cover cropto help keep the soil in placeThe rye is about 4 or 5 inches tallwhen I harvest the corn and thecattle graze on it along with thecornstalks which seems to beworking wellrdquo

Cattle help save soilThe Boyers run a 60-head pure-bred Limousin cow-calf opera-tion calving in both spring and

fall Pasture and forage for thecattle also help save soil A fewyears after arriving in IowaJason became director of theIowa Limousin Association andhas served in that position for 17years ldquoWe breed and sell a fewLimousin bulls each year What

calves we donrsquot feed out we usefor 4-H or we take the beef tothe Des Moines farmers marketwhere we set up a booth eachweekendrdquo he says

The Boyers are in their sev-enth year of operating a booth atthe farmers market which they

say is an extension of the HarvestBarn they opened in 2000 justeast of Osceola ldquoAbout 35000people attend the Des Moinesfarmers market each weekendand we see about 1000 peoplecome through our barn on busyweekends in late fallrdquo he notes

The couplersquos three childrentake an active role in the farmingoperation and help tend thefarmers market booth The boysKonrad and Kacey have showncattle for several years and arejust starting 4-H while daughterKaitlyn is an active memberof FFA serving as an of1047297cer forboth the local chapter and atthe district level While Amy hasher nursing degree she hasnrsquotworked in a hospital for severalyears as she keeps busy with thefamily businesses and has been a4-H leader for the past 12 years

Chester writes for Rathbun Land

amp Water Alliance

Keeping the water clean

RATHBUN Lake in southern Iowa is an 11000-acre reservoir and is the water source for RathbunRegional Water Association which provides water to 50 communities in southern Iowa and

northern Missouri The Rathbun Land amp Water Alliance works with farmers and landowners in thewatershed to protect the soil and preserve water quality

Landowners began installing practices through the Protect Rathbun Lake Project in 2004 Morethan 41666 tons of sediment per year no longer are delivered to Rathbun Lake due to the actionsof more than 550 landowners who have installed best management practices on their farms Thatincludes more than 1 million feet of terraces

To put that nearly 42000 tons of sediment per year into perspective itrsquos equal to 2625 truck-loads (16-ton dump trucks filled with sediment) each and every year If it was time for the trucks tomake their annual delivery to the lake there would probably be quite an uproar from the public

Another fun fact The terraces if built end to end would nearly cross the state of Iowa and therehave been enough structures built through the Protect Rathbun Lake Project for each county in Iowato receive five additional terraces mdash Kathleen Chester

Conservation84 wwwFarmProgresscom September 2014 Wallaces Farmer