SWOF Farmer Spotlight: Brian Lowry
In each of our Tune Up newsletters, we profile one farmer, team member, partner, or other SWOF affiliate to better understand their contribution to the program. Most recently, we spotlighted Brian Lowry, an Iowan farmer. Read on to learn a bit more about Brian and why he chose to partner with us.
About Brian: Brian Lowry is a 42-year-old full-time farmer working in Searsboro, Iowa. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Education from Iowa State University, Brian taught at the Baxter Community School District and Lynnville-Sully Community School District. He is now in his third year of farming full-time alongside his dad, Terry, and his brother, Jason. Brian is also on the Board of Directors for Key Cooperative.
Why did Brian decided to implement conservation ag practices?
After teaching about soil, he wanted to practice what he preached and leave the soil better than he received it for the next generation. He had the ambition of switching to no-till and building soil health.
Why did he pick SWOF over other programs?
Although Brian didn’t do much research about other programs, meeting with Joe confirmed that SWOF aligned with what he wanted to do. He also liked how Joe was able to be upfront about payment information after a previous experience with another program left him with more questions than answers. With SWOF, Brian has been paid to trial new conservation practices on his fields.
Advice to someone considering trying conservation agriculture: Talk to people who are doing it, and doing it well, and learn from them. If you’re not looking at changing, you’re not likely to improve your operation.
For organizations/programs looking to support farmers with sustainable agriculture, which areas could farmers use more support in?
There’s so much to learn about cover crops and soil health, provide more information on these topics. The more hands-on teaching, the better.
Brian’s final message is to farmers to look at the big picture. Brian said farmers are doing good overall but emphasized the importance of making agriculture more sustainable over the next 500 years instead of for the next 2 years.
