Iowa farmers share New Year’s resolutions for 2026

At the beginning of the new year, we often make resolutions to start a healthy habit, or maybe we set new lofty goals, like finishing our bathroom remodel.

And just like us, Iowa farm families are always planning ahead, looking for ways to improve their farms, be environmentally responsible and care for their animals.

Let’s check in with two Iowa farmers to see what their resolutions are for themselves, their farms and their communities in 2026.

What are your personal goals for 2026?

Blake Anderson, a cattle farmer from Nodaway, an Adams County Farm Bureau member and an ag education teacher for Southwest Valley Schools:

“One goal that I’ve been continuing to work on is to make sure that I always get enough steps in each day. Between 6,000 and 8,000 is my goal. And my doctor says I need to eat more potassium-rich foods, so more spinach, which I’m not super excited about, but I’ll do it.

“And as a cattle farmer, I want to continue to promote beef as a high-quality protein source. Just continuing to educate why it’s important to eat beef and other animal proteins, the nutritional benefits they provide for us.”

Janie Cornelius, a Jackson County Farm Bureau member and sales support lead for Cornelius Seed, a family-owned independent seed company in Bellevue:

“I’ve already been trying to be more thankful for things. I picked up a gratitude journal, and I’m trying to learn more about that. You hear so much about how gratitude is good for mental health.”

What are your goals to give back to your community in 2026?

Anderson:

“We have a livestock program that I’m involved with, and I would like to get more kids involved in showing livestock and connecting them to future opportunities in farming after they get out of high school.

“There’s one gentleman in the community who wants to sell his hog buildings, so trying to make that connection to a younger farmer so they can take over that (farm) for him."

 

Cornelius:

“With low commodity prices, it feels kind of doom and gloom in the agriculture world at the moment. So I’m looking at how I can be more intentional about providing support to our customers. What’s truly going on to help them, with us as their partner.

“And also, just connecting better to our local communities. We’re a very rural area, but there’s still a lot of disconnect back to agriculture.

“My mother-in-law and I, we’re focused on trying to connect with kids in the community by bringing more kids for tours at our seed company."

 

What are your goals for water quality and soil health improvements on the farm?

Cornelius: 

“My husband, father-in-law and brother-in-law farm together, and they are always thinking about where can we improve. My husband has been busy remapping fields and figuring out where we can structure waterways and move some buffer strips (to prevent runoff and soil erosion).

“We farm differently here in northeast Iowa because of the hills and because it’s for seed corn production. So our fields look kind of goofy with extra buffer strips. I grew up in northwest Iowa, where it’s flat, black ground. So it amazes me, the time and effort it takes every year, laying out our field contours and everything. They’re constantly thinking about how to make it better and how to improve it.”

Anderson:

“I’ve tried (planting) some different cover crops, and so I would like to continue to try out new cover crop (seed) mixes.

“And then where we have our calves out on pasture in the spring, it can get pretty beat up. So I want to try interseeding a summer grazing (forage and grass) mixture so that there’s more cover there than just the grass. So implementing some new grazing rotations."

  

Why do you plant cover crops?

Anderson:

“One, it’s feed for the livestock. We have a cow-calf herd, and the livestock really likes the green (grass) in the later fall, when it gets growing, and then in early spring. But cover crops also help keep the soil held in place because of those living roots, instead of having nothing growing on the soil (between fall harvest and spring planting).”

 

Anything else you want Iowans to know about farm families and their long-term goals?

Anderson:

“Farmers are always looking at what consumers want. And they want to make sure that they’re taking care of the consumers’ needs so that they can take care of themselves and their family and their family farm for future generations.”

 

Visit ConservationCountsIowa.com to learn more about how Iowa farm families are working to be environmentally responsible and improve Iowa’s water quality.

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Learn more about author Teresa Bjork here.