ILF webinar to cover farm ownership, leasing
AMES – The Iowa Learning Farms’September webinar, set for Wednesday, at noon, will feature Ed Cox, who will discuss his work with the Sustainable Agricultural Land Stewardship project.
The webinar is part of a series, hosted by ILF, held on the third Wednesday of each month.
The webinars are accessible through Adobe Connect. All that is needed to participate is a computer with Internet access.
Cox will discuss the recent two-year study that focused on Iowa farmland ownership and lease agreements.
The study compiled resources for landowners about how farm leases can be used to encourage soil conservation.
As farmland changes hands at an increasing rate, some new owners have little or no agricultural experience and may not live in the same county or state where the farm is located.
While these landowners won’t be farming the land themselves, they may well have concerns about the land and how it is farmed.
Outcomes from the project include a website which contains resources to assist landowners in gaining the knowledge and confidence needed to sit down with their tenant farmers and discuss how they can work together to have a productive and profitable farm operation and ensure the long-term stewardship of the land.
Visit the website for more information at www.SustainableFarmLease.org.
The initiative focuses on how land tenure policy and, in particular, farm lease contracts can help ensure sustainable and resilient farm operations in the face of increased demands on natural resources and rapidly changing landowner demographics.
To access the webinar, go to connect.extension.iastate.edu/ilf.
Cox will answer questions from webinar attendees via the Adobe Connect chat box.
The ILF website contains links for archived webinars from previous months.
Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa State University Extension, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the US EPA (section 319); in cooperation with Conservation Districts of Iowa and the Iowa Farm Bureau.