From the Field: Visitors from Down Under

Joselyn VanEck toured with her parents, who farm near Fish Creek, Victoria. (Photo by Matt Miller.)

Concern for survival of the family farm and the need to make agriculture more sustainable reaches around the world.

In August, the Leopold Center hosted a group of 40 Australian farmers who were on a 10-state tour of farms, processors and research facilities involved in sustainable agriculture. They stopped in central Iowa long enough to see the Leopold Center's work on hoop barns, organic agriculture research plots, and buffers along the Bear Creek National Watershed Demonstration site north of Ames. They also met with Leopold Center staff and sustainable agriculture groups from Iowa State University and Practical Farmers of Iowa.

"I love people and there's no two better to get along than Australians and Americans," said Queensland farmer Don Macfarlane, who has organized a dozen tours since 1990 for more than 600 Australian farmers. He believes the tours empower farmers to find their own answers to agricultural concerns.

Don Macfarlane has brought more than 600 Australian farmers to the United States since 1990. (Photo by Matt Miller.)

Most of the visitors had never seen a hoop barn used for hog production. The Leopold Center has constructed three such structures at the ISU research farm near Rhodes.

"It would be a bit more work but it seems to make a lot of sense," said Les Turner, a Queensland beef producer who also grows alfalfa. "And then we could straightaway avoid monocultures."

Among other stops, the group visited Tom Frantzen's farm in northern Iowa, a dairy cooperative in Wisconsin, a Mennonite farm in Illinois, a large dairy/calf operation in Pennsylvania, and a Virginia farmer who sells fresh eggs, poultry and various meat products directly to 400 families.