Family Legacy Continues With Help From CSP

Leighton operates Golden Ear Farm Inc. near Griswold in eastern Pottawattamie County with his wife, Cheryl, father, Bryce, and sons Anthony and Joseph. He says his father and grandfather, Lester, taught him how to handle the many natural resource challenges on their farm. “Grandpa and I would go out to the field and look at a different issue 20 times trying to figure out which way the water was flowing and maybe how we could fix something to keep it from eroding,” said Leighton. “It was just a process we enjoyed.”

Through the years, the Leightons constructed terraces and grassed waterways to reduce soil erosion on their rolling hills. They also built sediment basins to keep soil out of neighboring Walnut Creek. “We get water fingers running into Walnut Creek and it tries to eat into and erode the fields,” said Leighton. “Going to no-till and adding sediment basins has helped.”

In 2017, Brent applied for a CSP contract at his local USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office in Oakland. NRCS selected Golden Ear Farm Inc. for a CSP contract due to the conservation successes they have had on their farm.

Through CSP, NRCS works one-on-one with producers to develop a plan that outlines and enhances existing efforts, using new conservation practices based on the farmer’s goals. The program is designed to help farmers take their conservation activities to the next level. Through a five-year CSP contract, farmers implement conservation enhancements selected from a large list of options. CSP offers annual payments for implementing these practices while maintaining existing conservation efforts.

The Leightons added a field border, cover crops, prescribed burning, and planted more than 200 trees on their farmstead through CSP conservation enhancements. Brent selected sycamores, silver maples and cherry trees that will provide shade, wind protection and wildlife habitat to their farm. After five years, he says “it looks amazing right now. I really like trees in certain areas of the farm for shade and habitat.”

Leighton collaborated with an Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) forester on species selection and design of the tree planting. “We’ve had disease issues out here with pines and other conifer trees, so we thought this would be a good tree mix here on the farm,

Source: usda.gov

Photo Credit: gettyimages-steve-baccon