Tama County WLL hosted its first Learning Session since COVID hit on August 31st and it marked it’s 39th event since its beginning in 2007. The in-person and socially distanced event took place at the Erin and Steve Murty farm east of Gladbrook, IA. The evening event provided wonderful soil health and cover crop information for approximately 20 participants.

Tina Cibula, Resource Conservationist with NRCS, discussed soil health and provided an indepth discussion about cover crops. She then demonstrated several soil health tests to educate the participants about what healthy soil is and how they can improve the health of their soil. Then Erin and Steve Murty led the group to one of their corn fields to demonstrate firsthand what the cover crops look like in late August and discussed which types of cover crops worked best for them. Then, Jack Boyer, a SWCD Commissioner with Tama County Soil and Water Conservation District, showed his custom cover crop planter and discussed how it works.

Lastly, as is part of the WLL process, the participants were broken into groups to answer two questions designed by Tama WLL lead contact, Melody Bro. The questions helped them think about what their next steps will be regarding cover crops and what obstacles they see or perceive. The evening, which was a great success, ended with cookies and ice cream and further discussion.