History
Abbe Hills Farm is located about two miles north and west of Mount Vernon. Laura purchased the 72-acre farm in 1988 from Jeri and Barb Neal. The first improvements on the farm were a driveway, then the big shed. The big pond near Laura’s house was also built in 1988 during the major drought of that year. The smaller shed, the wetland near the road, and Laura’s house have all been built since 1996. Laura grows corn, hay, oats, soybeans, and the garden on the 54 acres of the farm that are crop ground. The rest of the land is buildings and driveways, natural area, pond, wetland, and restored prairie.
Living Soil
The most basic component of a sustainable and healthy farm is healthy, rich soil with a living soil food web. Creating and maintaining healthy soil is Laura’s primary job as the farmer. To hold that fantastic soil in place, all of the crop ground on Abbe Hills Farm is farmed using soil conserving practices like contour farming and minimal tillage. Cover crops grown in rotation with the primary crops also minimize soil erosion, plus keep plant nutrients in the topsoil where they can be available to crops, and help build soil organic matter and feed the soil food web. Insect pests and crop diseases on the farm are managed with resistant varieties, crop rotation, and biological diversity throughout the farm. Manure, compost, and some purchased fertilizer are used to supply plant nutrients for the gardens and the crops.
The small wetland near the road improves the quality and decreases the quantity of nearly all the runoff leaving the farm. The primary pollutant of Iowa’s surface water is soil. Small upland wetlands like the one at Abbe Hills Farm catch soil that might otherwise wash away by forcing runoff water to stand still for a while, allowing soil particles to settle out. Plant nutrients dissolved in the water are removed by the plants, like cattails, that live along the edge of the shallow wetland and by the roots of the native plants in the small restored prairie that surrounds the wetland. Small upland wetlands like this will one day be used all over Iowa to improve the quality and manage the quantity of the water that leaves our farms. Slowing water down and allowing it to soak into the soil also recharges our underground water and significantly reduces the probability of damaging downstream flooding.
Open Pollinated Corn
Laura grows an heirloom variety of open pollinated corn for seed, plus oats, hay, and soybeans on about 40 acres of crop ground. The heirloom corn has been grown on this farm since the first seeds were brought here by Burt Neal in 1903. The corn is well suited for livestock feed, and in the winter, Laura sells seed all over the upper Midwest. Her seed customers are farmers who are looking for good quality feed for their livestock, especially organic dairy farmers.