Workshops will be held this summer and fall at four Iowa locations to help technical service providers, certified crop advisers and others working directly with farmers and landowners achieve their certification in prairie strip design, establishment and monitoring. Prairie strips planted on highly erodible locations in corn and soybean fields can significantly reduce soil erosion and nutrient loss.

The full-day workshops will cover field mapping, prairie plant identification, seed mixtures, maintenance, cost determinations, AgSolver applications and more. Attendance at the workshop is the first step of a three-part certification program to become a prairie strips consultant.

The workshops are free for all attendees. A limited number of qualified attendees will receive a $250 stipend for attending the workshop and a $1,000 bonus after successful installation of prairie strips on a client’s field. Program participants will create a communications piece to support their business credentials in prairie strips.

Workshop dates and locations
All workshops will be from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and will be run by faculty and Extension staff from Iowa State University. The four dates and locations for training workshops are:
• July 12, Wallace Learning Center, at Lewis in southwest Iowa
• Aug. 3, Northeast Iowa Dairy Foundation, at Calmar in northeast Iowa
• Sept. 11, Northeast Iowa Community College Clock Tower Business Center, at Dubuque in eastern Iowa
• Sept. 28, Iowa State University Northwest Research and Demonstration Farm, at Sutherland in northwest Iowa

An online registration form and additional information about the workshops are available. Completed registration forms and questions should be submitted to [email protected]. The workshops are sponsored by the McKnight Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation through the Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance.

How do prairie strips work?
Prairie strips are a farmland conservation practice that yield benefits for soil, water and biodiversity when integrated into a cropping system on erosion-prone fields. STRIPS stands for Science-based Trials of Rowcrops Integrated with Prairie Strips. The project is composed of a team of scientists, educators and ISU Extension specialists who work together on the use of prairie strips as a conservation practice on farms.

Research by ISU and the STRIPS team shows that planting 10% of a grain field with native prairie strips achieves positive results. In addition to controlling soil erosion, prairie strips can reduce nutrient loss.

The STRIPS team projects show that small amounts of prairie into strategic locations within corn and soybean fields — in the form of in-field contour buffer strips and edge-of-field filter strips — can yield disproportionate benefits for soil, water and biodiversity. Prairie plants provide these benefits to a greater degree than other perennial vegetation types because of the diversity of native plant species incorporated, their deep and multilayered root systems, and their stiff stems that hold up in a driving rain.

Affordable and effective practice
STRIPS research shows that prairie strips for a number of fields can be one of the most affordable and environmentally beneficial agricultural conservation practices available. To hear from STRIPS scientists, farmers and technical service providers watch this informational movie.

As farmers know, not every acre of land produces the same yield. A similar idea applies to conservation: Some areas of a field or landscape yield higher conservation benefits than others. By targeting those areas that have a high conservation value, farmers and landowners can gain disproportionate environmental benefits. The research shows that by converting 10% of a crop-field to diverse, native perennial vegetation, farmers and landowners can reduce sediment movement off their field by 95% and total phosphorous and nitrogen lost through runoff by 90% and 85%, respectively. 

As STRIPS project collaborators, over 30 farmers and farmland owners are experimenting with prairie strips to demonstrate how the practice functions on different landscapes and soil types. Are you a landowner interested in using prairie strips? Learn more by exploring the resources on the Practice Establishment and Management page or contact Tim Youngquist at [email protected].