(cows moo)
(crickets chirping) - [Narrator] Tell me about
the farmers you work with? - Well, there was this one farmer. He passed away a few years ago but he meant a lot to a lot of people. He always said that when
the cow leaves the farm the people eventually leave
and the community crumbles. So now we're saying let's bring them back. (upbeat country music) - [Narrator] In 1950, it was rare to see a farm without livestock. Nearly all Iowa farms had
cattle, chickens, and pigs and the diversified crop and
livestock farm of that era nourished families
communities and the land. But by the late 70s, the number of farms with livestock had begun to shrink enough that Dick Thompson was concerned. He began doing on farm
research to figure out how to fine tune and
revive the diversified farm of his childhood for the
farming world of the future. At the time it was being called
regenerative agriculture, a simple but effective and
productive farming system that relied on a diversity
of livestock and a diversity of rotated crops. Most importantly, it depended upon people who knew the livestock and the land. It was called regenerative
because it regenerated the soil and natural resource base
that it depended upon. But also because it
regenerated the families in communities that depended upon it. While today, there are
actually more livestock in Iowa than ever before, but they've
become concentrated onto fewer and fewer farms in fewer and
fewer regions of the state. There are less than half the farms in Iowa there were in 1950 and less than half of
those farms have livestock. And that's had a big impact
on our people, our communities and our land. - Livestock are such a huge part of keeping that rural community thriving and humming on a daily basis. - [Narrator] As PFI's
livestock program manager and a beginning livestock farmer, Meghan Filbert sees the central
role livestock farmers play in their communities. - Livestock are a 365-day a year job. When you have to do something
every single day of the year that means you have to be
present and be on the farm and therefore be active
around your community. - [Narrator] A.J. and Kellie
Blair farm on A.J.'s family farm in the heart of central Iowa,
near the small town of Dayton. - A.J. is on the school board. I am on our parish council at church and we're a part of this community. And so if you know, if
I was working off farm, it would be harder for me to
be involved with those things. And it would be harder for my husband to be
involved in those things because we'd only have
a limited amount of time - The joy in farming. A huge part of it is working with people. - [Narrator] Arlyn Kauffman
farms in southern Iowa with his wife, kids, uncles, and cousins. They have a few cows, a layer
barn, and they work closely with Arlyn's extended family
to get cows on the land. - When you have livestock, you have to work with more people. And so that's more socially
sustainable to have livestock because you work together more. Having cows also helps to keep people here because it takes more people
to take care of livestock. And so that's good for the local community and anything we can do to help
promote that is is a benefit. I heard someone a while
back say that, you know, the Mennonite and Amish
groups, which we're a part of, are one of the few groups
that still maintains that the smallest sustainable
unit of spiritual life is not the individual, but it's the group. It's the body, it's the community. And so, you know, a
community is not a luxury. A community is an essential. It's how you live, it's how you work. It's how you move forward. And if you don't have
it, you're going to die. It's not sustainable
without that community life. And that's a truth that applies not just to spiritual communities,
but to other communities as well, whether it's
communities of farmers, small town communities, and so on - Another big part of livestock
production is the amount of money that goes back
into local communities. Because when you have livestock,
you don't have a bunch of time to drive hours
to the nearest metro. You go to your local hardware store and you go to your local
main street to do shopping. - There's mineral buckets out. And we buy that from a local co-op. And I get groceries in town, you know, our little town of 800 people. I try to get most of my groceries
there, when and if I can. We wanna make sure this
community survives. - The cattle business is
a huge financial catalyst in these rural Iowa counties. - [Narrator] Zak Kennedy
runs Kennedy Cattle Company with his family in the rolling
hills of southwest Iowa. - These dollars turn over rapidly. You know, whether it's our employees that live right up the road
or down the road from here, supporting their families,
we're supporting the tax base. You know, we try to buy as many
things locally as possible, whether it's feed or medicine or whatever else we need,
and those dollars turn over. And that allows another business owner within our community to employ people and do the same exact thing we're doing. So those things just keep churning and they feed off each other. And it really lacks in certain parts of the state. And you can see it when
you drive into a town and drive up their main street and see what's going on there. And I guess the way we look at it is we wanna be a positive
part of our community. So, you know, this is
one way we can do it, aside from supporting the local churches and FFAs and 4-H clubs
and things like that. I mean, those all go hand in hand but at the end of the day,
it's the cattle feeding, or the hogs or whatever anybody's got that's churning dollars
in our local communities. And I think that's very important. - [Narrator] While the loss
of the production and sale of livestock has heavily
impacted many of our small towns, the loss of livestock from our countryside has also had a big impact
on our land and water. - When the cows leave the farm or when any livestock leave the farm, there's no need to grow hay anymore. There's no need to grow
oats or other small grains. And it's very easy to then
just start growing corn and soybeans solely, which
are warm season crops. They're planted in April or May and they're harvested in October, meaning from November
to April of every year, there's nothing growing. Whereas if we had oats or hay still on more of our land, those
are cool season crops. And they're growing during that season. - I know that 10 years
from now that soil in some of our areas means it's going
to have lost 200 to 500 tons of top soil, that it's gonna
put nutrients in our streams that you know, where I used
to be able to walk down a row and shoot my limit of pheasants, I won't even see a single
bird for a four mile walk. Those are indicators that our landscape is not
going in the right direction. - [Narrator] As Seth Watkins,
who farms near Clarinda in southwest Iowa looks to the future, he sees clean water, healthy soil and cover for wildlife
as all important things that make Iowa a good place to live. - As our population grows
and grows and grows, we've got to work even harder to make sure that the wild species and the health of our soil and the quality of our water continues to improve and improve and improve. And so this is the story of the farmers who are building
a regenerative agriculture in Iowa with livestock on their land. They see raising livestock
as an essential piece of strengthening our rural communities, revitalizing our main streets, protecting and enhancing
our rich natural resources and bringing the next
generation back home to do it. This is a story about new
opportunities, the future, but mostly, it's about the farmers who are bringing them back. (cheerful music) So why aren't there more livestock across the Iowa's landscape today? The answers are complex, but
for many farming in Iowa, the 80s were a critical juncture. The farm crisis was the result of economic and geopolitical
factors beyond Iowa's borders, increased cost to production,
declines in ag exports and land values and increased
interest rates on loans. It all added up to
serious financial trouble for millions of American
farmers and ushered in thousands of farm foreclosures and
bankruptcies across rural America. Iowa was the epicenter. - Before we talk about how we get livestock
back on the land, let's talk about what
took them off the land. Pointing fingers is a
sign of a failed system but it's very important
to understand exactly how your system works to
see or to make change. The first exodus I saw
of cows was in the 80s because cows are liquid, you know, and when the bankers
needed money to pay loans from the increased interest rates, the first thing they
said was sell the cows and farm the ground. - During the 80s, the early 80s was the savings and loan crisis and the farm crisis where a
lot of farmers were losing their farms to the banks. - [Narrator] Bart VerEllen,
who now raises sheep with his wife, Trish in southern Iowa, grew up in farm country in Michigan. - Me and my brother milked
cows for our parents' landlord. And I always wanted to have my own farm. You know, I didn't so much
want to maybe milk cows, but I wanted my own farm. And with that farm crisis, it kind of closed the door on that dream. - [Narrator] Wendy Johnson also grew up during the farm crisis on a farm near Charles
City in Northeast Iowa where her dad raised row
crops, hogs, and sheep. - I just remember, never seeing my dad. Like, I have very few memories
of us hanging out together. He worked all the time,
just constantly working. I give it to him. He worked his butt off, like he worked really hard for his family and he really wanted to be successful. He wanted to be a successful farmer. And I think he is. He really became what he
really, well he manifested it. - [Narrator] Nick Wallace's
dad was running a small farm and growing a beef herd when the 80s forced him out of farming. - I mean, interest rates went
from 6% in '84 or '85 to 22% within a couple of years. And so, I mean, how are you gonna pay, how are you even gonna pay
the interest you bank on 22%? It'd be like putting a credit card debt on every single piece of
machinery and farm ground. - We nearly lost the
farm and we lost a lot of livestock and a lot of
tractors and equipment and things. And actually, we lost the
house that I live in now, too. So it was definitely a pretty
traumatic time in our history. - [Narrator] Martha
McFarland grew up on a farm in northeast Iowa, where
her dad raised cattle on land that had been in her
family for over 150 years. - And it's only then later as an adult, when you start to ask questions about like what was happening. They came like this
close to losing the farm. - I don't know if I really appreciated the stress or the climate at
the time, but looking back, I'm sure it was palpable
in the countrysides. Everybody was doing whatever
they could just to survive. That was the blow that really
kick-started, you know, consolidation in the market,
consolidation in the farmers you know, and everybody who
made it probably leveraged the land that they did have
or had to sell some of it. - It's driven away some
really good livestock people that we really need. And it's not right. - That kind of gave me my sense of I don't think I want a farm. - [Narrator] And so for many kids who grew up on farms and
rural areas in the 1980s, the farm crisis painted
a picture in their minds that a future in farming
was not a promising one. So after they finished
up with high school, many like Wendy left. - I wanted to see the world. Like I wanted to meet
people that weren't like me. I wanted to just immerse
myself and be a nobody you know, 'cause in a small town, everybody's a somebody, you know. Everybody knows what everybody's
business is and everything. So I wanted to work in
television and film. So I moved out to Los Angeles and started a whole new journey
and became one of millions. And I loved it. It was great to be a nobody. - [Narrator] Wendy's
quest to shake the dust from small town Iowa and see the world, led her to Japan, Los Angeles, San Diego and finally to Brazil. - That is the place where
I really learned about food and my appreciation for
food and my interest in food and what we eat and how we
eat it and how we communicate and communicate with others around food. - [Narrator] For others like Martha, leaving the farm in your
20s was seen as a way to gain a new perspective on the world. - I loved the farm. Like I was never one of those kids, who's like, I'm outta here. I can't wait to go live
in Florida or the big city you know, I think I've
always been a country girl. So I knew that. And I can remember even
just in high school feeling so connected to the land and feeling connected to
the stories and the farm. I feel like I have grown
up even in a family that really appreciates
like seeking out the world as much as like being here in it. And that growing up in Iowa,
we kind of know we're not on the coast and we know there's
this other world out there. So to get a chance to explore that and to understand things
that are different than what we've always known, I think it's just like an essential value that I've grown up with
and that I got to live out when I was away from the farm. - At the time, like the first year I felt I'm gonna emigrate here. I'm gonna live in Brazil
for the rest of my life, like this is a paradise. - [Narrator] While for
both Martha and Wendy, the time away from the farm
offered them a chance to learn about new people and new cultures. The gravity of family
and place began to tug at them more and more over time. - I kept thinking, okay,
what's gonna happen to the farm if I stay here, you know? And then I thought, okay,
my parents are aging. How am I gonna see them so often? Who's gonna take care of them? - It was more than homesickness. It was just this longing
to be settled again. And to kind of be back here in Iowa, I just always had this like push-pull between these different worlds. And I got a job out in Colorado, but it was teaching so I could
come home in the summertime. But at the same time, my
mom was diagnosed with ALS and that really became this like amazing wake-up call for me. That was really the
driving force to finally feel like, nope, okay, I'm
gonna make this commitment. And make this decision, so really grateful that I did. - And so having those
kinds of thought processes of the future really helped
me decide to leave Brazil. But I wasn't quite ready
to move back to Iowa. I moved back to Los
Angeles and I'm glad I did because that's where I met Johnny. - I grew up, we thought was
really far from the beach and we were 10 minutes from the ocean where you could actually
surf and ride waves. And I was considered an inlander. - [Narrator] In many ways, the world of Johnny Rafkin's youth
looked much different than his life today, raising
many different species of livestock on their northeast Iowa farm. - I grew up riding BMX bikes, skateboards playing baseball, football, things a lot of people do out here. (gentle music) - [Narrator] As Wendy grew up,
like so many other farm kids, she realized the farm was much more than a job or potential career. The connection to her
heritage that tugged at her was much deeper than that. It was a sense of duty and
responsibility and a commitment to continuing something
bigger than herself. When her grandmother passed away, Wendy realized it was
time to come back home. - My grandmother was a really
big influence in my life. I spent a lot of time with her, her and my grandfather as a child. I spent many times on this farm playing on that swing set that's over there. I just had a lot of
memories of this place. And for some reason, I guess why it didn't come to me before, but that idea of what's
gonna happen to that place, that place that's so special,
you know, in my heart, just an ode to their hard work and determination and
everything that they fought for and worked for their whole life, like what's gonna happen to that? It still brings tears to my
eyes just thinking about it. That kind of heritage would be lost. And I didn't want that
to be on me, I guess. I wanted to continue that. Like I wanted to continue that, all that hard work that went into raising a family and a farm. Excuse me. So that's kind of really
what, just kind of thinking about the future of the farm and what that was gonna look like was really a turning point for me. (gentle guitar music) I said, Johnny, I think I
wanna move back to Iowa. And I think we can farm
like on a bigger scale and we can be entrepreneurs and we can grow a lot of food
and we can build a community and do you wanna come with me? - Saying that you're gonna move to Iowa living in Southern California, not going there spending six, eight months or ever living there, it was kind of a drastic
thing to say to someone. I just said, you know,
if I don't do it now, I'll never do it and I'll never know. So, I did it. We moved out here in August of 2010. I didn't even make it to past Christmas, and I proposed to Wendy So I said, well, I guess
I'm staying now. (laughs) - [Narrator] While it
was the family connection and heritage that drew
Martha and Wendy back to their family farms, the journey back to the countryside was
much less clear for Bart. - You know, my family didn't have money, we didn't own a farm. We didn't own any land. So, you know, I went in the
service and I got out of the service and welded for, you know,
I had my own business after a while and did
that for a long time. But I always had in the back of my head, I wanted a farm, I wanted to ranch. I wanted to do something with
animals, livestock, you know. And after a while, I
was in Southern Florida. That's where I met Trish. We were running a small welding company and it was stressful, that part of Florida was growing extremely fast. It was getting, becoming a rat race. And I ended up purchasing some cows and just leasing some small
pastures just as stress-relief. You know, I'd go out there
and play weekend cowboy and just get away from everything and pretend I wasn't in
the big city anymore. And one of my leases was right next to a zoned industrial area. You know, cement trucks
driving by, cranes. But it was me and my horse and about a dozen head of Corrientes. People like myself that weren't born into a family that owns land
or marries into a family, it's really hard to be able
to go purchase enough land to start up an operation like this. - [Narrator] It was ultimately
the convergence of livestock and care for the land that
allowed Bart to have his own farm realizing his childhood
dream of caring for animals. - So I joined Practical
Farmers of Iowa shortly after getting here to Iowa. I already knew about this
organization before we moved. And it was appealing because
it was farmers helping farmers. And part of Practical Farmers
was the Find A Farmer program where I could list my name and the type of land we were looking for. And about after a year, I
got a phone call one evening from Shirley Waite, and she told me she had a farm over here by Blakesburg and they were looking for
somebody to come over here and lease it. - [Narrator] From farmers
who've always been on the land like Zak Kennedy, to those
who left and felt a call back like Wendy and Martha, or those starting anew like Bart, they all saw regenerative
livestock systems as a central path forward
on their operations. The world of regenerative
agriculture in Iowa is vast. The farms and farming systems we'll see are just a few examples. Many more farmers and
the animals they raise are stories for another day. Through rotational grazing and other carefully
managed grazing systems, farmers are protecting the soil, slowing and filtering the water and growing more forage on their land. Cover crops like cereal rye are a way to armor the soil
in the winter and spring, clean up the water and provide enhanced and flexible grazing on row crop ground. Finally, by integrating
crops and livestock in a single indivisible system, farmers use livestock to harvest and capture nutrients
needed for crop growth, creating a cycle that mimics
the cycles of the ecosystems that are the basis for all of farming. Rotational grazing is one tool
that folds many of the facets of regenerative agriculture
into a single system. - So, you know, what dad has done for years and years and years is probably what many farmers have done, which is that we had a 12-acre paddock. You figure one head of cow per acre and then you put them out for the summer and then they eat until
it's pretty much gone. But I would say like, as
like I started learning more and recognizing that the
universe really, is moving to a system of rotational grazing, that that is just the
science that's out there, now that really can help
you sustain more animals on your land, and recognizing that to
be financially viable, I wanted to increase our herd size. It just made sense to me that we would wanna move to
a rotational grazing system. - [Narrator] Rotational
grazing is nothing new. Martha's family has raised bison on their Northeast Iowa farm for years. And she like many other
farmers look to the bison to understand how to design
regenerative farming systems. - Thousands of years ago, bison would come hit an area really hard and then they would leave it again. And then they wouldn't
come back for maybe a year or something and it would
give the prairie time to rest. And so, by creating paddocks, you know someone said to me recently
that we're not just choosing which paddock they should be in, but it's more about what they're not in, what we're holding back and in doing so, just giving them that
chance to rest the grasses, that time to rest, to recover. And so figuring out how
you can still keep enough of everything you need in reserves, I think is part of the science
or part of the art of grazing where you really just have to work through and figure out what's
gonna work on your land. - [Narrator] Bart and Trish
also practice rotational grazing on their farm and the
principle of rest, recovery and healing the land is a
value of the utmost importance to Shirley as well, who owns
the land they farm today. - That's what we're doing
by rotating our sheep is they hit an area
really hard for one day, two days, and then they're
off of it for 60 to 90 days. And so that land does
have the time to recover and grow more and really
sink its roots down. And that's where the
benefits are coming from. Rest. - It's just this spring. It was beautiful. You're driving down the road and it's like there's clover and trefoil,
and it's standing this tall and it was just like,
that is so cool. (laughs) - [Narrator] Shirley
Waite grew up on farms and has been farming off
and on her whole life. Livestock and their central role in taking care of the land has
always been a part of that. - This to the right of us, which is East where the orchard is, and
on over to that tree line was traditionally crop
ground rotated back and forth between soybeans and corn. And then as we get a little farther, we had always kept it as
pasture and hay down here next to the trees because it drops off. And to keep some of the soil
and stuff from washing off. I wanted somebody who was
gonna take care of the land. There were parts of the land, we had cash or share rented the crop land for several years after my
late husband passed away. And it got taken care of, so, so, but some places were
starting to get wash outs. And that's one of the
reasons why it was important to find somebody who
understood the importance of rotational grazing and would care about the land and hopefully
continue to improve it. - There are about two and a half acres they're gonna move into
a 2 1/2 acre paddock here. And then the idea is for them
to trample and poop and pee and just stomp everything into the ground. And we're just mimicking
what the large buffalo herds or antelope herds did, you
know, before we got here. And that's what causes the ground you know, the forbs and
the grasses to grow. And if you look around here, what I was talking about before about, it's reverting back to
prairie and just look at all of these native
plants that are growing here, it's just incredible. And with the high
animal impact, density impact, we should see this actually
fill in even more, you know so we're actually growing more forage - [Narrator] Tom and Maren
Beard farm the steep slopes of the Driftless region in northeast Iowa near
Tom's parents' farm. Protecting those hill
slopes with perennial cover while still making a
living to pay for the farm is a challenge that
requires creative solutions. - We have a pretty diverse farm. We raise grass-fed lamb, grass-fed beef. We raise a few hogs every year and we have some organic crops. - And pizza. - And pizza.
- We raise pizza. - Yeah. - As everyone knows farmland, isn't cheap, and it's hard for young
farmers to get into it. So we've got to find a
way to have that balance of the perennial cover and also
being able to make a living. So the livestock for
us are good in that way because our is only 80 tillable acres and the rest of the 133
is 10 acres of woods about and the rest is permanent pasture. So we're able to use a
larger percentage of our farm than we could have otherwise just because we choose to use the pasture and the woodlands and the
sheep helped us with that. - [Narrator] Growing more
grass for more of the year is also the key to why cover crops work. Instead of the soil being bare before corn and soybean
planting and after harvest, Kellie and her husband
A.J. plant cover crops, primarily winter cereal rye, which allow them to keep the
land covered during the winter. - We've been using cover crops
for probably 10 years now and we really ramped it up
in the last probably five. And so our cover crops,
the way we use cover crops is they'll go in generally after our cash crop, our corn and soybeans and the majority cover crop
that we use is cereal rye. So we'll plant it in
the fall with our drill. We'll actually drill it into the soil. It'll overwinter and the
next spring it'll grow. We will kill the cover crop before we plant that next
cash crop the next year. We have a pasture that our cows and calves are at normally
during the summer months. And as soon as the crop is harvested, they will come around our homestead here where we have water and cover crops And they'll graze those cover
crops for as long as we can. It varies every year on
how much they can eat because it depends on how much it grows. So we don't quite have a set method of it but it works really well for us. - [Narrator] As she looked to the future, adding livestock was a way for Kellie to continue a tradition of conservation while growing her family's operation. - We were having kids and we needed to find a way to increase
I guess, our operation. And we really liked the
idea of having cattle. We were starting to use
cover crops and thinking about different ways to diversify. And the cattle really just
seemed like a great way to do it. So we started adding first
beef cattle into the operation then cow-calf, and along
the way, we've added hay and small grains and it kind
of keeps going from there. - [Narrator] Just as Kelly
and A.J. connect pigs, cattle and a diversity of crops to
maintain a long family tradition in central Iowa, Wilber
De La Rosa, who moved to southern Minnesota with
his wife a few years ago sees the connection between crops and livestock as a way to start farming in a new home that connects his heritage to the world of his future. Wilber grew up around agriculture but it looked much different
than the farms in the Midwest. He knew he wanted to work with livestock and he met fellow Guatemalan native, Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin and learned of a poultry centered
regenerative agriculture system he had been developing and the
two struck up a mentorship. Regi had worked for decades at the nexus of farming communities and environment, and was developing a system specifically for beginning farmers. Regi developed a system that
Wilber help him fine tune that he calls tree range,
a play on free range in pastured poultry production systems. It involves planting
perennial trees and shrubs like apples, hazelnuts, and elderberries that provide both saleable
crops for the farmer and protect the chickens
from the sun and predators. Arlyn Kauffman and his
wife Sue have relied on livestock to establish a
farm for their young family. - Well, we think that having
cows, having livestock, having the laying hens is actually what allows
us to be in farming. - [Narrator] By adding a
free range egg layer barn to the farm, the Kauffmans added an
additional revenue stream while still working on the land. And while Arlyn's operation is bigger than the small acreage
farms of Wilber and Regi, it's still small by the standards
of row crop agriculture. - To meet the the pasture
standard for our label, we have to have just a little bit over 50 acres accessible to the hens. Right now, most of that's in alfalfa which has now cut the
hens that have access to that every day. It's not as idyllic, small
as what I wish it were, but it's sustainable. It allows me to be on the
farm, my wife to stay at home and us to have work for our children. - [Narrator] They can also
add value to corn, soybeans and small grains they raise
on their own farm by grinding and mixing those crops
to feed to the hens. - I didn't grow up with
inheriting farm land. I bought this farm with a loan, a low interest loan from the government, but I had to make the payments. And if we had to rely
on corn and soybeans, year in and year out,
we just couldn't do it. - [Narrator] Perhaps the
biggest reason that farmers are incorporating regenerative
livestock practices are for the benefits to their own farms. These systems allow farmers to be more self-reliant,
producing more of their own feed and fertilizer on their farms and reducing the amount
they have to purchase. They also allow farmers
to buffer themselves from the weather, protecting their soil from erosion and compaction,
holding onto more water for their crops and
providing more flexibility and resilience to maintain profitability during extreme weather
events like droughts. Finally, trying out these new
systems can only be successful by farmers sharing
knowledge with each other and in doing so, strengthening
their communities. - My folks have always had livestock my grandparents before that, my great grandparents before that. And it's always been pretty
that's we're cattle people I guess, is a way to put it. And, you know, some people
are really into certain things and, you know, we're into feeding cattle. We live it, we breathe it. We go to bed thinking about it. And we wake up in the
morning thinking about it - [Narrator] Zak and his
family grow most of the feed for their cattle on their farm. They use a lot of the feeds
common on many Iowa farms, corn, hay, corn stalks, dried distillers grains which are a by-product of
corn ethanol production. But over the past few years, a new feed stuff has found its way to the Kennedy farm, both
for grazing and for mixing into the ration for the
cattle and their feedlot. On their farm, cover crops
have become an essential piece of passing on a sustainable and profitable cattle operation
to the next generation. - This is rye silage. This was chopped right about Memorial Day, but it's really a tremendous feedstuff for backgrounding calves or feeding cows, things like that. We do include a little bit of
it into our finishing diets but it's really been a nice
crop to add to our mix. - It's a no brainer. The seed is not that expensive. You don't have to go overboard. And there's a lot of really
interesting mixes out there but, you know, to get started
just some cereal rye is fine. Cows love it. They'll eat it. They'll eat it to the ground. Math is sometimes hard, but
if you really run the numbers, buying hay is expensive and if you can raise it on your own farm, you're gonna be better off every time - [Narrator] For Zak,
producing on farm feed is only half of why
having a farm operation that integrates crops and livestock is very important to him. - We're right in front of
a best part of the business some might say. This stuff here, I would expect it to be five
to six pounds of nitrogen 15 to 16 pounds of P and
15 to 16 pounds of K. So it's pretty good stuff. It's done a lot of good
for us on our farms especially our more eroded, hilly kind of farms that need a little help. And this is what's really
worked well for us. And this is really, if
you think about this where it all ties together because this is the start of
the next year's crop cycle that is also gonna be the
feed that we're gonna feed to the next pen of cattle. And it it's the back end of the cattle but it's the front end of the crop. So, you know, the only
commercial fertilizer we'll buy is actually just our nitrogen. This is a game changer where the livestock and the cropping and
everything comes together. - [Narrator] In addition to being able to save on fertilizer, Zak
sees the livestock manure as a way to improve the soil. - Well, it's homegrown, I guess
it would be a way to put it which I like it ties
together with our system but I feel it's a soil builder. And when you look at what
you're putting out there, it's organic matter. And what that's gonna
do is build your soil. It's gonna help your water retention. There's a factor that
I can't put my hands on that as far as the soil biology goes that that soil is just plain healthier and you can raise pretty
good crops off of ground that you don't think you should
raise that good of crops. And to me, this is what's doing it for us. - [Narrator] But perhaps more important than improving the soil is protecting it from being lost in the first place. - So, because we've divorced livestock from our cropping system, we have gotten into a pattern
where the soil is bare for at least half the year. And that's really where
the issue comes in. That's why we're seeing
erosion of our soils. There's nothing protecting that
soil during our fall rains, our spring rains and over
the winter, when snow melts. In a farm where you have a diversity of crops and livestock and
pasture, protecting the soil and protecting the water is
built into that very system. It's the heart of a
diversified agriculture system. - It was pretty good dirt, but you can see as you see behind this, it's rolling dirt. So we need to try and do what we can to make
sure it's not eroding. And, you know, by
keeping something growing in it all the time, I think we're achieving
our goals in that way. - You know, as far as conservation goes, it's really been an easy way to know that we're helping our soil and our water quality, because
we have a longer rotation because of, hay, cover crops
and the reduced tillage. - With all this ground cover we got, when it rains, the water isn't just running off
in sheets, you know. It soaks into the ground and it gets filtered out and the water that does actually leave
the farm is clear and clean and it's not full of silt and,
you know, soil and chemicals. It's clean water leaving the
farm and that's what we want. - [Narrator] In addition
to preventing erosion and cleaning up the
water leaving the farm, Kelly has seen cover crops as a way to get more field work done
in wet springs and falls. - The last probably two years have been really wet years for us. And so field days, like
actually being able to get out into the field and do things, whether it's harvest, plant or anything is really important to us. And with wet weather, we don't have a lot of time to get done what
we need to get done. And we can do a lot of
damage if it's too wet. So cover crops, we've really seen with our no-till and cover crop fields, we've seen at least a couple,
if not, a few more field days than our conventional farmed fields. If you think about a
rainy day and it's a mud, if your driveway is mud, as compared to walking out in your
lawn on a rainy day, it's kind of like that. When you walk out into your lawn, your shoes are just wet
instead of being wet and muddy. But that's kind of how we
compare it to is like a lawn but it's just, it's wet, but it's durable. - [Narrator] While
cover crops can be a way to improve field fitness
in wet conditions, It was actually a drought
that allowed Zak to see that cover crops and cattle were a way to ride out weather extremes on his farm. - For our operation, we started cover crops
in the fall of 2012. If you recall, that was the worst drought since probably the 30s
in this localized area. I'd planned on harvesting all my corn for corn, grain and feeding and everything was gonna be fine. And as the summer was progressing, we could see that we weren't
gonna raise much corn. And so we made the decision
to go ahead and chop silage. That's first corn silage
that we'd ever chopped. We got a big rain come through there at the end of August that year. And I went out two days later
and I could get in the field. The ground was that dry. And I drilled it and we put cereal rye, some turnips and some radishes 'cause that's the thing
I'd been hearing about. That's the thing you're
supposed to put out. So I did and it just exploded. The stuff was crazy. And we actually bought a pot load of bred heifers out of a drought area. And we turned them out
into this and it just, we fed them until January and it just clicked with me right then that I should have been
doing this a long time ago and I need to figure out
how to do more of this and extract value. And I could see what it was doing for our hills and everything 'cause the next spring we planted into it, no-tilled into it green,
the cattle had grazed it off to a pretty short height but the planter worked beautifully. It sealed, just everything
worked and after that, I was just completely sold. - [Narrator] For many
of the farmers working to build regenerative farming systems, going against the grain can be tough. Having a community to support them in their efforts is crucial for them to be able to establish
these resilient systems. - I didn't wanna go along. The things that I was seeing,
I didn't feel right about, like my gut didn't feel right about it. And I thought, if I'm gonna farm, I'm not just gonna continue
what everyone's been doing and I'm not just gonna go along. I went to PFI field days. That really was this major
intersection in my life of how I don't have to feel
or be an outsider anymore. The things that Johnny and I
value in farms and farming, it's not just a joke. I mean, it's real. And there's other people
feeling the same way and you don't have to go along
like you can be different. And there are other people doing things and thinking outside the box
and thinking about, you know animal husbandry, thinking about soil, thinking about plants in different ways. It was just going to
those first PFI field days and learning from others. That was so eye-opening
and it helped us realize that we can do this. We can be farmers and
we can farm with nature. We can get along, not go along. - When I was in the
military, the entire military is based on guys who have
been there before you teaching the new guys how to do their job. Practical Farmers Iowa is the same thing. It's farmers who have
been there and done that, teaching other farmers or you have a particular
circumstance or problem. And there's other farmers that already have been
through that with you. You know what I mean? And just helping each other. When I got started, there
were limited places of people I could go talk to to have,
you know, 200 head of sheep. You know, having a little
black backyard flock of a couple of dozen is way different than this, way different. And the management needs
to be different for both. You know, you can't really
expect to take, 12 sheep and just dump them out on
a big paddock like this and think they will be fine. They won't be, but by the same token, you don't wanna take 800 head here and try to cram them into a little pen and think everything's
gonna be okay and it's not. And I just think having people out there that are willing to share their experience and not view you as the competition, and not wanna tell you anything is really important. So anybody who ever calls me or has asked to come out on the farm tour, I'm always, yes, come on, you
know or ask your questions, I'll answer them the best
I can or I'll direct you to somebody I think that might be able to. And I think that's really
important in our industry. You know, we talk about
community all the time and that's what this is. This is community. And I know my neighbors that
have been watching me work and who came out here to
the field day last year I'm starting to see them starting to do some rotational grazing. And that's neat. That's neat that they've
recognized that, you know, this guy over here that
we thought was completely you know, bonkers and didn't
know what he was doing, you know, he's on to something,
'cause he's got a lot of forage and we don't and
they're starting to mimic me. So that's neat to see,
you know, we're learning. And we're all in this together. We're all learning - [Narrator] While for farmers, the primary aim of
regenerative farming systems is to benefit their land,
families, farm businesses and the farming community. Regenerative agriculture provides a bridge between farmers and non-farmers alike. Everybody relies on clean water, healthy food and vibrant local
economies and communities. And these farmers take
providing those values as top priorities. - I believe in conservation, I
believe in using what we have but using it in a responsible manner. That's important to me. And if we can get beneficial
grazing from our livestock and the livestock in turn
help regenerate the soil, it's just a win-win for the farmer. It's win-win for the economy. It's win-win for, you
know, our environment. - [Narrator] In recent years, Iowa has become more and more aware of the need for more
win-wins that help both farms and people living off
the farm in our cities. Over the past few decades,
the city of Des Moines and its drinking water
management authority, Des Moines Water Works had
spent millions of dollars removing contaminants
from its drinking water which comes from the Des
Moines and Raccoon Rivers. As it looked to the future, instead of building a new
multi-million dollar facility, it sought an injunction
against drainage districts in three Northern Iowa counties, the source of those rivers, to prevent its most problematic and expensive contaminant
nitrate from ever getting in the water in the first place. The ensuing lawsuit sparked
a controversy in Iowa which many viewed as a battle
between the late leader of the organization, Bill Stowe and the farmers in the river's watershed. While everyone had different views on the tactics used by
the Des Moines Waterworks, the debate on water in
Iowa, hit close to home for Seth Watkins. - You know, I don't know if I
should talk about this or not, but I'm going to. When the Des Moines Water
Works lawsuit took place, it really hit a lot of
farmers with a raw nerve. They really felt like Bill
Stowe and that organization was trying to go after them. But I've had some personal experiences that made me feel very
differently about that and actually led me to
having the good fortune of getting to know Bill and getting to call him my friend, and honestly saying I miss him very much because he was a real advocate for those of us, for all
of us who drink water and was not afraid to stand
up for what we needed. So in my family, my oldest
son, Spencer was born with a pretty rare syndrome
and it caused cognitive delays. And obviously, he's had some challenges, but at the same time, my life is very rich for getting to have Spencer
in the time we've had. And I really enjoy being with him. And it also opened my
eyes to the challenges that a lot of underserved
communities face. But being a farmer and a
rancher, since he had a syndrome, before we decided to have another child, my wife and I would go on ahead and went through genetic testing. I mean, I understand genetics. I wanted to make sure it
wasn't something heritable. We were told it wasn't and we
were told everything was fine. And when we became pregnant
with our daughter, Tatum, we were actually really
excited because we found out we thought we were gonna have twins. And I learned a lot about twinning. She had a, again because of some kind of a type of endocrine disruption, she was diagnosed with
what's called monoamniotic- monochorionic twinning, which is something you really don't wanna hear. And most kids don't survive. Well, as it turned out, we lost one twin in the
pregnancy, but fortunately through some brilliant
medical teams, Tatum made it, but we had lots of
complications when she was born. She had to have an ostomy
bag, which we've repaired. She had to have a lot of
surgeries to make things right. But the very first night she was born, I was in the NICU. Christie was still recovering
from an emergency C-section. And I was meeting with the medical team and they were looking through our file, looking through our records. And they said, you know, Mr. Watkins, we've looked through your records. There's no reason that both your children should have seen anything like this. And they said, we just
wanna know one thing. Where do you get your water from? And I heard that, and I guess
I'd start with saying that you know, endocrine disruption does happen and it can happen in nature. It's just mutations happen. But there's things we use
that we put on our crops and that we use in our lives that cause it and there's things we can do to keep those products out of our water. So nitrogen is a suspected disruptor. The surfactants in glyphosate
is a suspected disruptor. We know that atrazine is a disruptor. I think that A, it's
important that we find ways to move away from those products. But it's critical that we find
ways to keep those products out of our water stream
for everyone downstream. You know, I guess if I
have one passion in life, it's moving forward to
make sure no parents ever have to hear what I heard. You know, "Mr. Watkins, where
do you get your water from?" So when we look at this
and I still hear grumblings of urban-rural divide,
and some of those things, I just want us to remember, there's a lot of lobbyists
that are not paying attention to the fact that those of
us in rural water, we're in municipalities that can't
afford to treat our water. And I just want them to
remember that Bill was the guy that stood up for my family
when some of the other groups that said they'd represent me weren't. And for me, that's my passion. And I'll always stick to science. I'll always stick to the facts and I'll always understand the dynamics, but I'll always work hard to make sure that the water that leaves our farms is safe for all of us,
because we all drink it. (upbeat music) - [Narrator] While we can all agree that clean water is an important priority for all of our communities. Understanding why nitrate
ends up in the water in the first place is crucial for understanding what solutions work, for keeping it out of
streams and drinking water. Much of Iowa's soil is inherently
high in organic matter. And when the soil is warm and wet enough, soil microorganisms start
breaking down that organic matter. One of the byproducts is nitrate. For the most part, that's a good thing. Nitrate is needed to grow plants. And so high organic matter
soils are very productive which is why we grow
high-yielding crops in Iowa. However, when there are no plants growing and that nitrate is produced in the soil, it leaches through the soil, flows beneath the soil
through subsurface drainage and ends up in our
streams, rivers and lakes. So why do we have water quality issues now whereas we didn't, 75, 100 years ago? The answer has to do with cover. In 1950, Iowa had nearly 12
million acres of hay and pasture and over 6 million acres of small grains. Today, we have a fraction of that number because both hay and small
grains like oats and rye are actively growing in the
early spring and late fall before and after corn
and soybeans are growing, they collectively used up the nitrate being produced in the soil. But as more and more
livestock left Iowa farms, oat and hay production declined. Soybean production
increased and less acres had plants growing on them
in the spring and the fall. There are many solutions to
creating clean water in Iowa, but adding livestock back to
more farms strikes straight to the heart of the issue. - Sometimes when I'd be frustrated, I'd actually talked to the older farmers, the guys that were, I mean, like they'd probably be like
almost a hundred now. But they kind of had it right. They did a lot of things really well. They had the right blend of livestock and they farmed the right areas. And if they had a thin spot, you know, they'd actually concentrate their livestock there to improve it. So there were so many
good farming practices that have developed over time. There were things that, you
know, tillage, organophosphates some of those things that
weren't as cool, obviously but we still rotated our crops. We still, you know, I remember we still we were still raising oats in this area even in the late 80s, early 90s. So I was always encouraged when I talked to those farmers about how they, you know care for the land, how they use livestock. - [Narrator] Nick Wallace, drew, not just on the production systems but the communities of the past, in his quest to rebuild
those communities today, around grass and cattle. - It was a vibrant community rurally, and even in the Keystone and
Belle Plaine and Van Horne and all these small towns
around here, you know, the streets were filled. I mean, people shopped locally, you know we didn't have these huge box stores then. Yeah, I mean, people,
the community was there. And so that's kind of
where I draw my inspiration and my motivation for where
we need to get back to. - [Narrator] While crop rotation that includes small grains and hay keeps more of the land
covered for more of the year, some production systems put the
land into grass permanently. All cows eat grass. Most cows produced for meat
are fattened or finished on a diet that includes grain. Grass-finished cows eat
nothing but grass and hay. It's slower to fatten cattle that way, but it results in more grass on the land. Nick Wallace has built a
business on this concept. - We went in and we said we're gonna build a
grass fed beef company. And we kind of did a couple of farmer's markets and we
were trying to find our way and navigate what the best way to build a meat business was. We didn't really know at
the time we were, I mean I was literally just trying
to get one customer at a time. And as cliche as it is, that's really a great
way to build a business, is one customer at a time. So we started out in 03-04 and here we are, what 17, 18 years later. And you know, we've got customers all over Iowa and
Chicago and we, you know, we're still packing one
box at a time for families. We're not trying to compete
with the big grocery stores. We're not trying to serve everybody, but we have our niche group
of people and it's growing and the movement's growing too. I mean, you're seeing a
lot of small direct to, consumer marketers that you know are trying to provide
food for families too. - [Narrator] Today in southern Minnesota Regi's small scale
regenerative poultry system has become a way to bring
communities together. - [Narrator] Outside of Decorah,
Tom and Maren Beard found a different way to bring people
together around their farm and their livestock. After visiting several pizza farms, farms with on-farm wood-fire pizza ovens that essentially function
as outdoor restaurants, they thought their community
could use a place like that. - We love producing good food and we love living here and
bringing people together. And we just kind of felt
like this was something Decorah really would
love and would support. So we decided to go for it. When we first opened that kind of thought, I had an idea of who we
might attract out for pizza. And I've been really surprised, actually, pleasantly surprised. - Everybody likes pizza. - Everybody likes pizza. I love the meat that we produce and that our farming friends produce. And it's fun to share it with people and see their
reactions, you know, "Oh my gosh, this pork is so juicy. It's so good." Or, "Oh, I've never had lamb before. This is really, this is
really, really good." And that's kind of maybe how
we both show love through food. So yeah, we get to share that
with the community, I guess by cooking pizza for them, for people. I think the world needs
more of those places and we're only open for four hours a week. So chances of seeing someone out here that you're gonna know when you're from a small
town are pretty high. - It's encouraging when I
ride on the Wabash Trace, our little rail, trail
way, our bike trail. And we go to Imogene to the Emerald Isle which I haven't been
able to have the pandemic but we go there on Taco Tuesdays. And what has really encouraging
is all the farmers come over and they hang out with
all the bicycle riders. And we all have a great time, which tells me some of those
attitudes of, you know, us and them are are going away. And we're all recognizing
we're in this together. - [Narrator] These innovative
farming systems and efforts to strengthen local
economies and build community do face challenges. The consolidation and centralization of the meat packing industry has both made our food supply chain more
susceptible to disruption, but it also makes it harder
for small and mid-sized farmers to get their animal butchered and sold. The COVID-19 pandemic
made that crystal clear. - I think that's a big
challenge in the future. One that we need to solve
because most of the food is produced packaged and
sold by just a handful of companies across the United
States, or even globally now. - As a farmer out here, it
was a pretty scary thing when we had a barn full of cattle. We had a barn full of pigs,
and we started hearing about processing plants shutting down. And when there's only a few of them and those few all shut down, it really gets you thinking
about what do we do? - So when I first started
the meat business, I was working with a small, medium size, probably small in today's terms, a processor up in northeast Iowa. And I could take in live
animals and we could turn it all the way into really great
processed, packaged meat you know, retail ready. but it seemed like every couple of years, those processing options were shrinking. It's kinda gotten to the point now where we have very few selections for the medium to small size producer that wants to turn their live
animals into retail ready. - As farmers, a next step for us is really to figure out how to
get more local lockers around because even right now, a year out, we've made appointments to the
lockers, the local lockers, but we know that they're
probably still gonna be full and they're still not ready for that. - There's not an open locker
space in the state of Iowa until probably next March
or April at the earliest. I think we need to look
at a variety of things. And I think we need to look beyond just selling meat
directly to the consumer, but to maybe have more
cooperative thinking amongst producers, grocers, and think about what we can do right here. Why not? - We control our own fate. Let's put it that way. We just maybe need to
get in a room together and realize that we can do it and we can control our own fate together. - We have a couple of great
Iowa owned grocery stores. What would it take to build
a collaborative system of finding out what their supply needs are and starting to put in
smaller packing plants to meet their supply and demand curves and meet their needs with cattle
that are raised right here? - [Narrator] In addition
to working together to come up with market-based
solutions, many farmers suggest that a reordering of priorities when it comes to agriculture subsidies could both benefit farmers and create a healthier and more
resilient food supply chain. - This year, as a farmer, I feel like we've gotten
more government payments than we've ever had as young farmers. And I know we'll take 'em. I'm not saying we won't take 'em. We're young farmers, we need the money, we need to pay down debt. But eventually, that gets paid back to our landowners and we
rent a majority of our acres. So it really keeps land prices up. What I think we feel is
that that money should go to things like lockers and food supply. You know, whether it be local you know, vegetable, farmers' markets, whatever it is that
money should be put in, so maybe they can get more employees. Maybe they can have more
capacity to butcher more. Maybe it's one more employee or a state inspector that
they can be state inspected. I feel like that money as it does help us. It seems like it's going into a bucket that maybe is already full enough. - You know, Iowa spends a lot of money on economic development
than on other things. So, I think we have a sound
argument for what we're doing. - [Narrator] Iowa could be the center of regenerative agriculture in America, reinvented with the best of the past but prepared for the world of the future. We could have our entire
landscape covered for the winter. We could protect our soil and water through regenerative
grazing, cover crops and a new marriage of crops and livestock. These all could provide the basis for a rejuvenated rural economy and make Iowa a better place
to live for our children. But it will be no small effort. And it'll take everybody. It'll take farmers, bucking the trends and trying new things like
Bart and Wendy and Zak and Wilber and Martha and Arlyn. It'll take landowners
committed to conservation and helping the next generation
succeed like Shirley. It'll take entrepreneurs
like Nick and Regi, Tom and Maren creating new businesses. And it'll take working with
grocery stores, schools and other institutions. As Kellie and Seth say, our governments will
have a role to play too, ensuring that public dollars are invested in the type of infrastructure and programs that truly benefit farmers and the rural and urban
communities they help propel. - I guess I think back to my grandmother when she would talk about 4-H and it's about making our best better and Iowa agriculture is incredible. We have a lot to be
proud of, but you know, sustainability is about
continuous improvement. Success, never rests. It's about continuing to
improve the things we see. Again, we all know about
the 9 billion people and I just wanna make sure
if we have 9 billion people, it's 9 billion people with access to clean, healthy, safe water, clean, healthy, safe productive soil. - If we're not gonna make
this change, then who is? Like it is up to us, this
generation to make this place a place where we want to live and where other people want to live. I think that through
diversified agriculture and stacking enterprises
and getting creative and using your community to help you, think about what our
landscape would look like. Think about a family with small children, every quarter mile on a
country road with, you know like kids running around. There'd just be life,
animals, people, wildlife, all types of different crops. - You know, as we develop and get more comfortable
in what we're doing, we're gonna do more and
probably do some crazy things and make the neighbors talk. But I'm fine with that. You know, at the end of the day, I've got to figure out how
I'm gonna pay for this farm and make it sustainable long-term so that if my kids wanna come in, that there's place for them here. Ultimately, that is my hope that I have at least one kid that
comes home and, you know, whether she wants to do it or has a husband that
wants to be involved, I'm open to anything there. But the way we really try
to grow our businesses, so that hopefully it is
something that can be passed on to a family member. And if not, then my goal is to
find a young person somewhere that wants to feed cattle and farm and do this and help
them out and get started. That's important in my world. - [Narrator] The solutions to
building a more regenerative and resilient land are as complex as the complicated history
that gave us the Iowa we have inherited today. As we've done in the past, it'll take all of us working together to figure out how to make it happen. If we do it, we can ensure that Iowa will have resilient farms and communities ready
for the next generation. We could bring livestock back in a way that would leave
our rural communities and main streets, our soil and water and the relationships
we have with each other in better shape for our children. (uplifting music) - The future for my daughter who's almost eight years
old out here on the farm. I hope she stays here
as long as she wants. I want her to be able to
be close with the land and be close with the animals. I want her to know that this land and farm will be here for her when she's ready for it. And I hope she does one day. I hope she sees all the hard work her mom and dad put in, and
one day will appreciate it and be able to raise some good food too. (cheerful music) (mellow country music)
