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Diane, David and Dresden Petty
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David Petty has taken what might be considered a negative situation – farming along river bottom ground – and turned it into an environmental plus, as well as a profitable and productive agricultural operation.
The Petty family’s Iowa River Ranch spans an eight-mile stretch of the picturesque Iowa River and has become an award-winning model for environmental stewardship and sustainability. In August David and Diane Petty and their daughter Dresden will add another honor when they become recipients of the 2003 Spencer Award for Sustainable Agriculture from the Leopold Center
“If you keep the environment in the equation, you improve the total system and everyone comes out ahead,” said David Petty. “I’ve always thought that cattlemen were the original conservationists.”
Petty began farming in 1974 with the purchase of 10 cattle and a leased pasture. He has worked with neighbors to rent, and then make improvements on, marginal cropland and overgrazed pastures. With help from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), he has built more than 13 miles of terraces, four ponds and 12 miles of drainage, reshaped more than 11 miles of waterways, and seeded three miles of buffers to control soil erosion, improve water quality and establish wildlife habitat.
“Many conservation practices lend themselves to the cow-calf industry,” he said. “My crop headlands are grass, which I bale once during the season to keep it growing. Then in the fall my cattle graze corn stalks and grass in the headlands, field terraces and buffer strips.”
Petty said he rented small pastures when commodity prices were high and “no one else was interested in grazing.” Much of the land was hilly or easily flooded by the river and not suited to row crops.
With every new property, the family has picked up rocks and cleaned out scrub brush so that holding ponds and terraces could be built and pastures could be re-seeded with quality forage. Petty also dug two wells and laid more than 4,000 feet of underground water lines to supply the connected pastures for rotational grazing. Crop fields are farmed on the contour using minimum tillage. Manure from the beef feedlot and market hogs are used as fertilizer on the crop ground.
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Each pasture has its own watering
system away from streams.
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Their farm has been open to agencies such as the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Current ISU work at the farm includes research on nutrients found in water, stream bank stabilization and the most economical level of fertilizer application on grasslands.
Diane, an elementary school principal in a nearby school district, helps during the summer months with farm tours. Visitors have included staff from Living History Farms, a group from Russia, and pasture walks hosted by NRCS or local extension staff. Dresden, a junior at Iowa State University in animal science and agricultural education, shows cattle and horses, and speaks to groups about her family’s operation.
The Pettys have added a primitive campground near the river in a portion of native timber. The land often becomes a weekend gathering spot for picnics, hikes, trail rides, canoeing, hayrack rides, campfires and fishing expeditions for a large extended family.
“The fun part of agriculture has seemed to slip away for a lot of people,” David Petty said. “We enjoy it and like to share.” |