Remembering all the way back to the Field Day that we attended in McGregor, Iowa last Wednesday, we were able to witness something powerful. These farmers truly did care about their land. Despite the bad rap that much of the American public has given them, their concern for the soil and crops go beyond making a worthy profit. The men that attended the Field Day all had something to learn and something to contribute. Each brought different knowledge and answers for one another. I found it beautiful having a 90- year old man sharing what he knew about farming to a group of twenty-somethings. Cover cropping was the theme and preventing runoff was the issue. We learned all about wheat rye and the dangers of over-tilling the soil. All very instructive, we got to see another side of the cover cropping story today with Mr. Glen Hodnefield. He actively participates in CRP, and sets aside portions of his land to other conservation uses. He utilizes buffer zones, wetlands protection, and cover crops as a part of his conservation efforts. The buffer zones are a method of strategically placing native grasses next to waterways to catch nutrient runoff from the fields before they leak into the water. Wetlands are, in a sense, a return to the prairie land that once dominated this part of the country. Between the 1990s and the 2008 Farm Bills, many incentives existed to motivate farmers to actively participate in CRP, but since have declined greatly. The safety net features of the recent Farm Bill like crop insurance and disaster assistance in addition with the flourishing biofuels industry has detrimentally affected these land stewardship programs. All of these factors lead to more farmers planting fence row to fence row, rather than participating in programs that would convince farmers to participate in the conservation stewardship programs.  We also were able to compare and contrast till and no-till fields. By not tilling, the corn plants stay in the ground after harvest, allowing the roots to hold the soil intact. The corn prevents erosion and goes back into the soil and acts as a fertilizer. While each method has its own disadvantages, it is an undeniable fact that his yield from the no-till field were significant and in some cases exponentially higher than his regular till field. I don’t pretend to be a field or soil expert, but numbers don’t lie.