A field day focused on cover crops, interseeding, grazing cover crop mixes, and roller crimping will be held from 1-4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 10, at the Tom Cotter farm, 50203 205th St., in Austin. The event is co-sponsored by the Land Stewardship Project and the Iowa Organic Association.

Cotter’s family has been farming in Mower County for 140 years and has worked with cover crops for the past 19 years. The Mower County Soil & Water Conservation District gave the Outstanding Conservationists Award to Tom and his late father, Michael, in 2016. In 2017, Tom was honored as a National Wildlife Federation Cover Crop Champion. The Crop Cover Field Day will showcase the innovative work that Cotter and his family have done to build soil and protect water quality on their farm.

The Cotter farm is diverse, with fields of conventional corn and soybeans, beef cattle and sweet corn as well as land being transitioned to organic. The Cotters experiment with interseeding cover crops into corn, planting organic soybeans into roller-crimped rye and utilizing warm season cover crops. To maximize his soil building efforts, Cotter grazes beef cattle on cover crops deep into the fall. Cover crops provide many benefits to farmers, such as increasing soil-water capacity, reducing erosion, improving soil structure and health, suppressing weeds and breaking pest cycles.

“I believe to get healthy crops and healthy food you need to start with healthy soils,” Cotter said. “That happens by giving food and shelter to soil life. Cover crops do that. We started putting no-till and strip-till together with cover crops and then we saw soil health benefits skyrocket. My cover crops have helped my reduced tillage practices work better.”

Registration for this free event will begin at 12:45 p.m. Burgers will be served afterwards. RSVP by calling Toby Cain, Iowa Organic Association, at 563-447-0462, or Sarah Fillius, Land Stewardship Project, at 507-523-3366.

This event is made possible with support from the USDA’s Risk Management Agency.