-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
Both of Dwight Dial’s sons, including Ethan (back row, left) and Andy (back row, right), and their families joined Dial during the Wergin Good Farm Neighbor award ceremony in Lake City on March 31.

LAKE CITY — When Dwight Dial was a teenager, he got his start in the livestock business in October 1964 with 12 purebred ewes and 20 commercial (crossbred) ewes, thanks to a purchase he made during Bill Goins’ farm sale at Lake City.

Nearly 58 years later, Dial is still raising sheep, along with hogs, corn and soybeans in the Lake City area.

His contributions haven’t gone unnoticed.

Dial was selected this spring to receive the Wergin Good Farm Neighbor Award, which is coordinated by the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers (CSIF).

“I’m really humbled to receive this award,” said Dial, 72, who is an active volunteer with Central School Preservation (the museum in Lake City) and has helped raise money to renovate the historic Community Memorial Building in Lake City. “I’ve often listened to other Good Farm Neighbor winners on the radio, I’ve known some of them personally, and I respect all they’ve contributed to agriculture and their communities. Receiving this award ranks right up there with some of the most memorable, meaningful accomplishments in my life.”

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig (left) presented Dwight Dial of Lake City with the Wergin Good Farm Neighbor award on March 31. “Dwight is a great example of someone who takes pride in caring for his pigs and sheep, while recognizing the importance of caring for his land and being involved in his local community,” Naig told the audience at the Community Memorial Building in Lake City.

Both Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig and Deputy Secretary of Ag Julie Kenney were on hand to present Dial with the Wergin award at the Community Memorial Building in Lake City on March 31.

“Since Dwight started farming in 1978, he has worked to make his operation more sustainable for future generations through the implementation of conservation practices,” Naig said. “Dwight is a great example of someone who takes pride in caring for his pigs and sheep, while recognizing the importance of caring for his land and being involved in his local community, making him a deserving recipient of the award.”

Gretta Irwin, executive director of the Iowa Turkey Federation, gathered with many of Dial’s friends, family and ag industry leaders from across the state who attended his award ceremony. She became acquainted with Dial in the 1990s, when she served as executive director of the Iowa Sheep Industry Association (ISIA).

“Dwight has a strong commitment to the Iowa and US sheep industry,” said Irwin, who noted that Dial was a dedicated leader on the ISA board, served on the American Sheep Industry Association’s first executive board from 1989 to 1993, and was awarded an Iowa Master Lamb Producer in 1994. “Dwight’s smile and charisma made board meetings better. He enjoyed connecting with other farmers, talking about sheep and educating himself on sheep health. Promoting lamb products was also a passion, working at the ISIA food stand at the Iowa State Fair.”

Conservation pioneer

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
Dwight Dial began raising sheep in October 1964 when he was a teenager. He continues to raise sheep on his farm east of Lake City.

breaks new ground

Wergin Good Farm Neighbor nominees must be a family farm operation, be active in their community, produce livestock or poultry to the highest animal care standards, and be dedicated to conservation and environmental stewardship on their land.

“During the past 18 years, we’ve recognized 160 farm families with this prestigious award who all have one thing in common — the passion to improve animal care, protect the environment and serve their community,” said Brian Waddingham, CSIF’s executive director. “Dwight Dial is another great example of a livestock farmer who has gone above and beyond in each of these areas.”

That includes Dial’s conservation efforts. When he began no-tilling in the 1980s, he wasn’t deterred by the comments of other farmers who weren’t impressed with this farming method.

“‘I’d quit farming before I’d become a trash farmer’ is how they put it,” said Dial, who grows 700 acres of soybeans and corn, along with cover crops.

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
Dwight Dial, of rural Lake City, has raised hogs for many years and runs a nursery-to-finish swine operation today.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, however. Decades of no-till on Dial’s 50/50 corn-soybean rotation have improved his soil’s organic matter from 0.5 percent to nearly 6 percent today. “Higher organic matter makes nitrogen available all season long,” he added.

There has to be a better way

Continuous improvement and sharing best practices are important to Dial, a former ag teacher who credits his high school FFA advisor, Rudy Engstrom, with encouraging his interest in agriculture.

“When I taught at Iowa Valley in Marengo from 1972 to 1974, I noticed that farmers there weren’t moldboard plowing every acre,” said Dial, who earned his bachelor’s degree in ag education from Iowa State University, where he later worked on his master’s degree in animal science. “It was a different system than I was used to, but it was working.”

The downside of excessive moldboard plowing was evident in areas where it was used extensively on corn and soybean ground.

“Those fields were as black as black could be,” Dial said. “The nearby ditches were also full of soil, and I knew there had to be a better way.”

Dial was also inspired by Jim Owens, an experienced no-till farmer from Lake City.

“Parts of Jim’s operation made a lot of sense to me, especially when it came to reducing erosion,” he said. No-till made even more sense to Dial when the Farm Crisis hit.

“The bottom line is always a top consideration for any farmer. Switching to no-till meant my dad, Gerald, and I didn’t have to use as much equipment, and our fuel bill dropped way down. This helped us survive the 1980s.” No-till has also helped Dial withstand the drought that hit his area in 2012.

“More organic matter means the soil’s water retention capacity skyrockets,” said Dial, whose fields include Clarion-Nicollet-Webster soils. “My crops stayed green, even when the rain quit falling.”

Less compaction is an ongoing advantage of no-till, which fosters a thriving ecosystem in the soil.

“The earthworm growth is phenomenal, which leads to more air and water channels that benefit the crops,” Dial noted.

Learning from the land

No-till is just one of the many conservation practices Dial has implemented on his farm. He has also built terraces, added grass waterways and installed buffer strips to slow water runoff.

“I’m doing everything I can to retain nutrients for my crops,” said Dial, who became one of the first farmers in his area to meet the highest levels of the voluntary Conservation Security Program from the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“The last thing I want to do is send nutrients down the river,” he said.

In 2011-2012, Dial participated in the Certified Conservation Farmer program from AGREN in Carroll. He completed more than 40 hours of conservation education in the classroom, and spent more time observing conservation on farms to learn about innovative methods for protecting the land from soil erosion, building soil organic matter and optimizing soil fertility while preserving water quality. All these efforts earned Dial an Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) Environmental Leader Award, which recognizes the exemplary voluntary efforts of Iowa farmers who are committed to healthy soils and improved water quality.

In 2018, Dial also added solar energy to his farm. An analysis revealed that a 39,000-kilowatt system would power everything Dial required.

“It was a great day when we flipped the switch to solar,” he said. “It makes even more sense when you consider the estimated increases in electricity rates in the years ahead.”

Dial encourages other farmers to re-evaluate their farming practices, test a new conservation practice on a portion of their acres this year, and keep learning about better ways to raise crops and livestock.

“My goal has always been to build a sustainable farming operation,” he said. “I want to leave a legacy of conservation.”