First Spencer Award winner announced

The owner and operator of a family-owned dairy near Davenport has been selected as the first recipient of a new sustainable agriculture award from the Leopold Center.

David Petersen, Blue Grass, Ia., will receive $1,000 as part of the 2002 Spencer Award for Sustainable Agriculture. The award will be presented July 3 at a regularly scheduled meeting of the Leopold Center advisory board.

The new award was established in 2001 to honor farmers, researchers and educators who have made a significant contribution toward the ecological and economic stability of mainstream family farms in Iowa. The award honors the beliefs, innovations and stewardship of Norman and Margaretha Spencer, who farmed near Sioux City for 40 years. It is funded by an endowment from the Spencer family, who asked that the Leopold Center administer the award.

Petersen and his wife Amy manage a 90-cow herd as part of their Majestic Manor Dairy enterprise and operate a genetic seedstock and replacement heifer business. They also raise corn, no-till soybeans, and forage crops of alfalfa, oats and rye on 430 acres with little purchased fertilizer. Petersen has served on the National Milk Producers Young Cooperators Advisory Council and is a trustee on the Iowa 4-H Foundation. He received the Muscatine District Soil Conservation Award in 1988 and has been a consistent member of the 200 Bushel Corn Club while using injectable manure from his dairy operation as fertilizer.

Petersen was chosen for the award by an eight-person selection committee comprised of members of the Leopold Center advisory board and the Spencer family. For more information about the award or to learn more about the Spencer family, go to the Leopold Center web site.

Guidelines for the 2003 award will be announced in the fall.