Completed By:  Carissa Shoemaker, Director of Land Stewardship

Organization and its farmland

• How much farmland does your organization own and manage? (total acres): 

Whiterock Conservancy owns and manages approximately 602 acres of row crop (corn, beans, small grains) and 883 acres of pasture. In 2022, we hayed 236 acres, 35 of which were alfalfa. We also hold 10 soil health easements across 2,155 acres. We do not own this land but were gifted the conservation easements on them and so are obligated to monitor and maintain those easements in perpetuity.

• Where is this farmland located? (Counties, State):

We farm in Guthrie County and Greene County. Our soil health easements span Guthrie, Greene, Carroll, Audubon, and Monona Counties, all in Iowa.

• Will you be acquiring more farmland over time? (Y/N/Maybe): 

Maybe. We would particularly be interested in land contiguous to the Conservancy. We are also pursuing additional soil health conservation easements across the state.

• How much of your current farmland do you expect to still be in farmland in 10 years? (Please provide estimate by percentage or acreage, whichever is easier) 

I would guess up to 90% of our farmland will still be farmed in 10 years. As we continue to monitor soil health and yields as well as consider organizational priorities, we may decide to enroll more ground in CRP or convert more acres to habitat. I expect that we will continue to farm quite a bit of ground into the future, however, given the income and opportunity to demonstrate regenerative practices.

• What percentage or number of acres of your farm properties have farm infrastructure (fencing, well water, farm buildings – not including tiling)? Please share any helpful comments or explanations. 

Most of our farms have fencing of some sort, maybe 75%. Several have wells and farm buildings, as well.

• In general, is your organization interested and willing to invest in more infrastructure (fences, wells, farm buildings, etc.) on the farmland it owns? (Y/N/Maybe – we welcome some comments as well if the situation is nuanced) 

Maybe. We are interested in grazing more of our ag fields and could use more fences for that, but they likely wouldn’t be permanent, same with shelters for livestock. There are also some spaces we could graze if we had access to water, but we don’t currently have plans to drill any additional wells or install more water lines. Our focus right now is maintaining what we already have.

• What kind of farming is currently being done on your land? Please list the number of fields or acres for each.
  • • Conventional commodity row crops (corn & soy): 580ac, more or less; it fluctuates with our small grains production
      
    • Conventional livestock production: tenants use 4 feedlots for cattle in the winter, and 2 buildings for calving and kidding
      
    • Organic/sustainable grains: not organic but sustainable in that small grains are used to improve soil health and diversify crop rotation. Fields rotate annually so acres vary, but we are probably averaging 25ac of small grains per year right now, though we may expand our small grain rotation. We’re currently doing about 2/3 of those acres in production cereal rye (we use the seed for cover crop) and 1/3 in oats (sell to cover crop seed company). We also bale and sell the straw that comes off those fields. We hope to experiment with additional small grain varieties in the coming years, such as buckwheat
      
    • Organic/sustainable/rotational livestock production: 33ac of pasture is rotationally grazed with Whiterock bison. 850ac of pasture is leased to producers who rotationally graze cattle
      
    • Local vegetable production: ½ ac is leased for tenant vegetable gardens
    • Hay: 236ac (fluctuates)
    • Trees/Agroforestry: 2ac fruit trees (apple, cherry), 2ac walnut timber
      
    • Other: 3ac leased for vermicomposting operation
      
• Does your organization offer (or partner to offer) any education about farming to the public or to the farmers who farm your organization’s land? (Y/N – if Yes, please briefly describe)

Yes, we give tours of our fields and facilities to discuss regenerative ag concepts and sometimes put out content on social media, on our blog, and in our newsletter. We also offer support to soil health easement grantors and operators regarding the practices mandated in the easement, such as no-till and cover crops.

• How is revenue from your organization’s farmland used by your organization?

Our farm revenue helps cover our nonprofit’s operational expenses, in conjunction with revenue from recreation and donations. We also reinvest in the upkeep of our farms and equipment, as well as experimentation with different BMPs.

Farmland management decision-making, staffing, and policies

• Who leads the management and operation of your farmland on a day-to-day basis?
  • Our Land Operations Manager, Matt Reiling, oversees daily operations. He makes sure things are planted, sprayed, harvested, etc.; attends to our bison; coordinates with our partners and vendors; and plans our crop rotation.
  • Our Land Programs Manager, Tyler Bruck, manages our leases, our easement program, grain marketing, and recordkeeping, and assists with educational programs.
  • I, as Director of Land Stewardship, manage our CRP contracts, FSA obligations, enrollment in incentive programs, and our farm budget; plan our cover crop mixes and order seed; manage and market our bison; stay current on BMPs through networking and continuing ed; educate visitors and staff on sustainable ag concepts; and provide oversight and support to the operational team.
• How many staff total (full-time equivalents) manage your farmland on a day-to-day basis over a year? 

I think I’d say two full-time equivalents. Matt, Tyler, and I have additional duties but we also have a part-time staff member who helps quite a bit with the farm program, so I think all of our farm time together would amount to two full-time folks year-round.

• What policies, if any, drive or guide your land management decisions?  (If there is a specific policy, please share it with us when you respond to this survey.) 

We have some organizational policies around expenditures and chain of command, but otherwise I’d say we’re guided more by principles than policies, like “the conservation and improvement of soil health.” Unless you’re asking about state and federal policies.

• Is fostering local food production on your farmland important to your organization? (Y/N – if Yes, please briefly explain how this is pursued or may be pursued in the future)

Yes. We proudly support local producers through our lease program, some of whom market livestock and meat locally. We don’t have much beyond that just yet—our vegetable garden tenant mostly grows recreationally and our vermicompost tenant is still growing their operation—but we hope to foster more local food production in the future, perhaps through additional leases or a farm incubation program.

Relationship with Farmers and Conservation

• What kind of standard leasing and licensing arrangements do you have with your farmers? How long do your leases typically last and do they ever deviate from that period? How are farmers selected for farmland lease opportunities? How is lease pricing set for standard farmland lease arrangements?  
  • Our ag facilities leases are cash rent, priced per facility or per head per day for use of feedlots. They are generally 1yr periods.
  • Our pasture leases are also cash rent, most priced per acre with per head per day rates for grazing outside of the lease period or leased acres (i.e., flash grazing). The leases generally follow the grazing period, May-October, with some flexibility depending on seasonal conditions; we may shift the period backward or forward if grass is quick to come up or is late, for instance.
  • Our row crop leases are flex cash rent. We charge a per acre cash rent baseline rate, with the remainder of the rent based on of the rent determined via a flex rent schedule, though we do cap the per acre rate. Flex rent is a percent of gross income. The tenant is responsible for inputs and applications except for cover crops, which are currently split 50/50 between landlord and tenant, though we worked our way up from a 90/10 split over the course of 8 years. Our row crop leases run 1yr.
  • Some of our row crop and small grains is done through a custom farming agreement, and some of our hay and straw is done through share cropping agreements.
  • Lease pricing is based on tenant feedback and a comparative analysis of our leases, markets, land prices, ISU surveys and other sources, and additional considerations regarding the leased facilities/land and organizational needs.
• How many total lease or lease-to-own agreements does your organization have? 

We have 4 row crop leases, 5 pasture leases, and 5 facility leases, for a total of 14 agricultural leases. We also have a set of hunting leases and CRP leases, which we have not included in these totals.

• When a farmer’s lease ends, can it be renewed without going into a competitive process? (Y/N – explanation appreciated if you answered Yes)

Not our row crop or pasture – we include a termination letter with those during lease signing to ensure that Whiterock has the flexibility to change lease arrangements and/or our program annually. Our facility leases currently are automatically renewed by a certain date unless either party suggests changes, however, as we wanted to be sure that our tenants knew the particulars of their lease arrangements in time to plan their operations. We may change that going forward, again in the interest of organizational flexibility.

• Do you restrict any practices farmers can do on your land for conservation purposes (no fall tillage, prohibition on the use of certain chemicals, no hay cutting until certain date, etc.)?  (Y/N – if Yes, please briefly describe)
  • In our row crop leases, we prohibit tillage of fields and grasslands (including erosion control structures) without our consent, require cooperation with our cover crop program (Whiterock plants and terminates), and mandate the tenant control noxious weeds. We also require the tenant comply with any USDA program we’re participating in and manage the farm according to current FSA/NRCS standards. We retain the rights to crop residue.
  • In our pasture leases we require rotational grazing where infrastructure allows and mandate the maintenance of pasture health. If we observe pasture health is in decline or grazing practices are inadequate, we retain the right to request the removal of livestock. We share responsibility for the control of noxious weeds and require tenant to gain approval before spraying herbicide so that we can assess any risks to water quality and nearby plant communities. Tenants must also seek approval before applying fertilizer to pastures.
  • In our facilities leases, we call attention to water quality standards and legislation.
• Do you require and/or incentivize any positive conservation measures to be taken by the farmers (use of cover crops, installation of prairie strips, etc)? (Y/N – if Yes, please briefly describe) 

Yes, we share the cost of cover crops with our row crop tenants and we manage erosion control structures and other BMPs on our farms.

• Do you have any programs designed to help beginning farmers (farmers with less than 10 years of experience) get a start on your organization’s farmland? If so, please describe. 

No, not at this time.

• Does your organization allow for unique/custom farming arrangements on specific farmland properties to explore or test conservation approaches? (Y/N – if Yes, please describe) 

Yes. We work with tenants to test new conservation approaches and have custom farming arrangements around some of our experiments, such as our small grains rotation. We are also open to experimentation from our easement land operators, provided their goals align with that of the easement.

• Please describe any edge-of-field practices your organization carries out around tillable acreages or requires farmers to plant/maintain (e.g. buffers or bioreactors, etc.).  

We have a lot of CRP ground around our farms, including edge-of-field buffers and filter strips. Whiterock maintains these, but our tenants and operators do need to work around them.

• Do you have any organic farming leases/arrangements with farmers? (Y/N – if Yes, please describe briefly and share how many acres are in organic production) 

No, not at this time.

• Do you do any formal or informal activities to build good relationships with your farmer tenants/partners, like meeting in person on an annual basis? (Y/N – if Yes, please describe briefly) 

We don’t have any formal activities but do try to meet in-person several times throughout the year, outside of the official lease negotiation and signing period, to check in.

Monitoring and Information systems

• What systems does your organization use for holding and storing data about your farmland properties as well as for administering them (GIS, databases, etc.)?  

We use GIS for recordkeeping, planning, and mapmaking. We have a server and cloud-based folders for recordkeeping, as well, and file sharing. AgLeader and John Deere systems are also used on our farms to capture in-field activities.

• What things do you monitor to determine whether your farmland management system has the conservation impacts you want to see?  

[Not Answered]

• Soil testing? (Y/N – if yes, please provide a short description of what kind, how often, who pays for soil testing, whether same testing lab is used, etc.)

Yes, though not as much as we’d like. We pay an outfit to take samples every few years on the ground they custom farm to assess OM and chemical properties. I believe they use the same lab each time. Our row crop tenants are responsible for soil testing on their ground, as well as sharing results. We don’t prescribe any particular test or frequency. We do test our easement ground, assessing aggregate stability twice a year and running a Haney test once a year; these go to the same lab each time. Whiterock pays for testing, in this case.

• Other soil health metrics (earthworms, etc.)? Y/N plus a short description. 

No, other than anecdotal observations.

• Erosion monitoring? Y/N with a short description if Yes 

Kind of. We watch for gullying, alluvial fans, etc., but we don’t have a monitoring program/protocol and we don’t measure erosion in a quantifiable way.

• Water quality testing/monitoring? Y/N plus short description if Yes  

Yes, we participate in the Iowa Soybean Association water testing program, contributing samples from our streams, the Middle Raccoon, and several of our tile lines as well as a wetland.

• Wildlife monitoring? Y/N plus short description if Yes  

Yes, we conduct a 5yr bird survey. Otherwise, we rely on anecdotal observations.

• Is the farmer responsible for providing any of the above information?

Yes, soil testing results.

• Do you have any indexes or other systems for quickly assessing the practices and ecological health of a particular piece of farmland?  

Just field scouting, yields, and observed cover crop performance.

Bigger Picture Questions 

• What are the three projects and/or aspects of your farmland management system you are most proud of in terms of your organization’s farmland management system over the past three years? 

From the past three years, we are most proud of our small grains rotations which incorporate multispecies cover crops, the infrastructure improvements and additions we have made to increase our capacity for rotational grazing, and our relationships with our tenants and other partners which allow us to experiment with things like flash grazing and prescribed grazing for invasive species mitigation.

• What are three of your institution’s biggest challenges around conservation-minded management of its farmland?

One of our biggest challenges is the strain on our resources, whether it’s staff time, equipment hours and wear and tear, or cash for inputs and maintenance. Relatedly, our second challenge is weighing the costs and benefits, keeping in mind budget constraints and our relationships with our lessees and producers. To make things even more complicated, we invite the public onto our land for education and recreation, so are also thinking about visibility and educational opportunities as we make decisions, and sometimes have to shift things around on the landscape to accommodate visitor traffic—some of our trails shift throughout the season as cattle are rotated to different paddocks, for example.

• What changes are you considering making to your farmland management system over the next five years? 

Over the next five years, we will continue to evaluate and reconfigure our farmland according to our organizational needs and goals. I imagine we will enroll more ground in CRP, taking any farms with poor soil, low yields, and steep slopes—or those adjacent to habitat that we would like to expand—out of production. We would also like to custom grow more small grains and continue to experiment with different cover crop mixes within the rotation. We hope to build a more robust soil testing program, perhaps dovetailing our assessments at Whiterock with those we undertake for the easements we hold. We will continue to improve our rotational grazing infrastructure and pastures and would like to graze more cover crops. Finally, we want to formalize some of our experiments into research studies that we can more easily monitor and share.