Family Legacy Continues with Help from CSP

by Jason Johnson, State Public Affairs Specialist, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service

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,” he said.

In 2022, Leighton renewed his CSP contract for another five years. He added more no-till and cover crops to his cropland acres, along with nutrient management practices that will improve nutrient uptake efficiency and reduce the risk of nutrient losses. “We are using variable rate dry fertilizer for our nitrogen applications,” he said. “We are also doing some tissue sampling. We only put the nutrients down where the crop needs it. That has worked great for us.”

Terry Gleaves, district conservationist for NRCS in Oakland, says farmers can apply for CSP at their local NRCS office. “We are projected to have a lot of funding for CSP here in Iowa over the next several years, so it’s a great opportunity for farmers who want to try some new conservation practices on their farms,” he said. 

Leighton says CSP has allowed him to “dip his toe” into some new situations. “Some of it might not work exactly like this long-term but some of it will work in different places on the farm, and work really well,” he said.

“Anything you do has to be somewhat profitable because we’re in a business here,” said Leighton, “but I also think we’ve got a responsibility to maintain our land for the future. It’s a balancing act.”

NRCS obligated more than $16 million to Iowa farmers in 2022 through 385 new CSP contracts. Go to www.nrcs.usda.gov/ia to learn more about CSP and other NRCS programs or visit your local NRCS field office.

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