Farm Bureau members Glenn and Coleen Van Dyke of Poweshiek County received the 2014 Iowa Conservation Farmer of the Year Award, sponsored by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and the Iowa Farm Bureau. The Van Dykes have built and planted conservation structures on their farm to reduce soil loss and protect the environment.As summer draws to a close, we are all reminded about life’s cycles. The state fair is over, kids are back at school and college, and football is in the air. Another cycle is the weather. Summer started wet, turned generally cool and then was moderately dry.

These inter-seasonal cycles ebb and flow and periodic concerns develop, but the long-term conservation progress by Iowa farmers is certain.
Iowa’s erosion rate on cropland is down 28 percent from 1982, as measured by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Nitrate concentrations analyzed by the Iowa...