By Andi Anderson
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig visited the Fred and Vicki Abels farm near Holland in Grundy County as part of The Big Show’s “Clean Water in Iowa Starts Here!” program.
The initiative is a partnership between Iowa agricultural groups, WHO Radio, and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) to promote clean water practices across the state.
Fred Abels, the 2025 Conservation Farmer of the Year, has implemented a wide range of conservation practices on his 380-acre farm. These include strip-till farming, cover crops, a saturated buffer, filter strips, Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land, pollinator habitat, nutrient management, windbreaks, and a recently completed wetland.
These practices are designed to improve water quality, support wildlife, and promote long-term soil health.
Naig and IDALS wetland project manager Shane Wulf toured the 5-acre wetland, which was completed a year ago with IDALS funding. The wetland has already become a thriving wildlife habitat, attracting pheasants, ducks, and deer.
Naig noted the importance of these practices in preventing runoff and protecting local waterways while maintaining productive farmland.
“Wetlands are a huge component of our strategy … and I’m proud of the work that our team has done,” Naig said, explaining that close to 30 wetlands projects are being completed across the state this year. “We want to work with farmers and landowners to implement whatever works, what makes sense on the landscape and what will work in their operation.”
Naig also emphasized that IDALS supports a wide range of conservation tools. These include assistance for buffer strips, cover crops, bioreactors, and wetland construction.
“We love to pilot things, and I think we have one of the fastest conversion rates of pilot to program of anywhere in the country,” he said. “We have a menu … a range of practices that work. There are management practices … strip-till, no-till, nutrient management, cover crops … things that you do in a field; and then there’s the edge-of-field practices” such as buffers, wetlands, oxbows and bioreactors that are more structural in nature. “It’s a combination of those things that work. It has to be an all-of-the-above approach,” Naig said.
Photo Credit: gettyimages-nes
Categories: Iowa, Education