Iowa Learning Farm hosts virtual learning field day

Sixth generation farmer Wade Dooley is taking farming into the future.

The Marshall County man was featured April 24 when Iowa Learning Farms hosted a virtual learning field day. Throughout the presentation, there were videos of Dooley showing various practices he is using on his family farm. Dooley said he has grown a variety of crops, including corn and soybeans as well as popcorn among other agricultural ventures.

The platform allowed attendees to see the different aspects of Dooley's farm and ask questions when the video finished. Whether it was about how he uses cattle or what crops he is planting, there were plenty of questions to be answered. One revolved around when Dooley would want to start planting a certain field.

"That particular field is going to soybeans so it won't get planted until probably mid-May," Dooley said.

One particular field Dooley showed in a video featured a transition ground that would be converted into CRP for the next 10 years. Dooley said the field is river bottom ground and due to climate change the flooding in the area has been a catastrophic level.

"When you have got that much of an impact from river flooding, the system that you are using has to change," Dooley said.

Due to this, Dooley said he isn't going to continue to fight mother nature, rather adapt with it. He is going to change the ground to a wetland/native grass mix that will help with the flooding. The tall grasses, Dooley said, will catch the sediment from the river flooding.

"I'll grow my soil faster than I possibly could've by myself," Dooley said.

A specific question was asked about the seed mix that would be going into that area. The question asked was whether or not the area being a wet environment was brought into consideration when selecting what native grasses would be in the mix.

"That is going to be a primary consideration ... The mix is going to have to be pretty diverse," Dooley said.

One thing Dooley said was he think the future for crops will be more diverse in what is grown than what farmers are currently growing. Dooley said it isn't that people can't grow other crops it's that they choose not to, whether that be due to numbers or other things.

"We have the most productive soils in the world and we only grow two things," Dooley said.

He said he is working to not be married to two crops. The other crops can make just as much money or even more than corn and soybeans.

"We shouldn't be fighting every year just to break even," Dooley said.

Throughout the duration of the event, Dooley fielded various questions related to how his family is looking ahead to the future. Whether through cover crops or even with planting the CRP to catch sediment, Dooley is helping his family's farm move forward into the future.

"This is a family farm. I am the sixth generation on it so I have a lot of history going behind me and a lot of expectations and hopes and dreams of those before and I'd like someone to be after me to take up the reins also. So, my argument has always been that I am not farming this just for me I am farming for the next generation and the one after," Dooley said.

Contact Dustin Teays at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or dteays@newtondailynews.com