Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Research farm superintendent, organic farmer share Spencer Award

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January 30, 2012

AMES, Iowa -- Bernie Havlovic and Michael Natvig work at opposite corners of Iowa. They’ve each spent more than thirty years in separate arenas—Havlovic managing research projects at Iowa State University farms, and Natvig transitioning his family farm to organic crops and livestock. Ordinarily their paths might not cross.

But their commitment to the health of Iowa’s land and people has brought them together as the dual winners of the 2011 Spencer Award for Sustainable Agriculture. The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, which administers the award, will honor them in a special presentation on March 1 in Ames, Iowa.

Bernard “Bernie” Havlovic manages the ISU Armstrong Research and Demonstration Farm in Pottawattamie County and the ISU Neely-Kinyon Research and Demonstration Farm in Adair County. He has conducted agricultural research since the 1970s and now lives on the Armstrong farm as its superintendent, overseeing 50 to 75 experiments or demonstrations every year.

“At heart I’ve always been a researcher,” Havlovic said. “It’s been the best of both worlds. In many ways, I get to be much like a farmer, living with the same weather and cropping problems. But I also get to do experiments and really see the other aspect of agriculture, why things happen the way they do.”

A native of central Nebraska, Havlovic earned a farm operations degree from ISU. Building trust with extension staff, project leaders, and members of the local community has been one of his strong points, according to many who have worked with him. He was involved with the first high tunnels built at an ISU farm, and remains active in home demonstration gardens, a popular program that can draw 350 people to a summer field day. The research he oversees helps Iowa farmers practice ethical land management.  

“Farmers are basically the same no matter where you go in Iowa,” Havlovic said. “They realize that they don’t own the land. Their legacy is operating the farm and passing it on to another generation.”

At the other corner of the state, Michael Natvig is working to fulfill that legacy. Natvig owns a 420-acre organic farm in Howard County, where he grows corn, soybean and a small grain mixture called succotash. He also raises organic beef cattle and hogs, and maintains hayfields and pastures alongside of native prairies, oak savannas and woodlands.

Natvig credits his father for inspiring him to practice good stewardship on their family farm. “He always had a really strong conservation ethic,” Natvig said. “I remember when I was a young kid he built terraces on some of our farmland and put in waterways and had a good crop rotation on our farm, which all contribute to soil health.”

Natvig upholds that tradition as a fifth-generation farmer. In the late 1980s he began transitioning to organic when he realized that farm chemicals, as well as becoming increasingly expensive, were making him sick. He certified the farm as organic in 1998 and began restoring native wetlands and prairies on the property. He also took advantage of an opportunity to graze cattle on a streamside pasture on the Norman Borlaug Heritage Farm, the birthplace of the founder of the World Food Prize. No cattle had grazed there for the previous decade, so Natvig carefully monitored the water quality and vegetation along the stream. He discovered that as long as he rotated cattle through the pasture every few days, the stream habitat remained healthy.

As a longtime member of Practical Farmers of Iowa, Natvig conducts on-farm research. Some of his projects have explored non-GMO crop varieties, organic methods of parasite control in livestock, and soil organic matter and nutrient cycling in organic systems.

Natvig said that it takes a whole new set of management skills to make organic farming work. “You’ve got to have the belief that it’s the right thing for you to do, the right thing for your farm and the land,” he said. “For the long-term health of the soil and the land, and the farm in general, it worked out well for our family.”

Natvig and Havlovic will be recognized for their exemplary efforts to develop sustainable farming practices and enhance the stability of family farms during the quarterly meeting of the Leopold Center Advisory Board. The presentation will begin around 11:30 a.m. on March 1 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Ames.

The Spencer Award honors Norman and Margaretha Spencer, who farmed near Sioux City for 40 years. Although not a graduate of ISU, Norman Spencer maintained an active relationship with ISU’s College of Agriculture and several professors, encouraging them to conduct research on sustainable practices and family farming. The award was established in 2001 by an endowment from the Spencer family, and includes a $1,000 cash prize for each winner.

Learn more about the award, and read a tribute to the Spencers written by their children, at http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/spencer-award.

For more info contact:

Mark Honeyman, Interim Director, Leopold Center, (515) 294-3711, honeyman@iastate.edu

Laura Miller, Leopold Center Communications, (515) 294-5272, lwmiller@iastate.edu

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