URBANDALE, Iowa - The Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) held a producer information event on Thursday July 19, 2007, at Jim Andrew’s Farm, Red Top Farm - Andrew Farms, Inc., near Jefferson, Iowa. Andrew is a crop farmer and an ISA director and the winner of the 2007 National Conservation Legacy Award.

The event was opened by Andrew with a presentation about the history of Red Top Farm. Next on the day’s agenda was Peter Kyveryga, ISA senior research associate, who gave an update on ISA’s On-Farm Network™ Nitrogen Management research. “We want to help farmers improve economic and environmental performance,” says Kyveryga. Following Kyveryga was Chad Martin, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation BIC cattle sales manager, who presented on the subject of the Iowa Farm Bureau Carbon Credit Aggregation Program. Carbon sequestration is defined as the capture and storage of carbon that would otherwise have been emitted or remain in the atmosphere.

Lunch was catered in by Lincoln Way Grill of Jefferson. After lunch, Elwynn Taylor, professor and climatologist with the department of agronomy at Iowa State University, presented Weather Situation and Outlook for Summer 2007. Taylor explained the impact of weather on the crops in 2007, as well as giving perspective on trends in past years. He then spoke about the impact of yield and trend lines on the marketplace, and how information about weather can be used to forecast market prices and how farmers can position themselves to get the best price possible. Taylor stressed that it doesn’t do any good to know in advance what the weather is doing if nothing is done about it.

Following Taylor’s presentation, attendees were transported to Hardin Creek via hayrack where Todd Sutphin, ISA state watershed coordinator and Tony Seeman, ISA water quality technician, spoke about water quality perspectives and demonstrated water quality-testing instruments. “Our objective is to understand producer bottom lines and to link that back to water quality,” says Sutphin. “We want to work locally and find solutions that are environmentally sound.”

Gordon Brand, senior chemist with Des Moines Water Works (DMWW), also spoke on water quality. He discussed the importance of water quality to each individual. Brand stressed that each farmer has the ability to affect not only his/her own water quality but of others throughout the state. “The water we see here today will be at DMWW in about three days,” says Brand. “What happens in one area impacts a much larger region.”