In this episode, Editor Walt Cooley interviews two guests, Kurt Wierda of Plymouth Dairy in Le Mars, Iowa, and Tom Oelberg, formerly with Diamond V and an adviser on Kurt’s management team. Tom recently retired from Diamond V and is best known in the industry as the “grandfather of the TMR audit.” And Kurt’s dairy was one of the first dairies to do a TMR audit and has completed several since the program started in 2008. Overall, more than 12,000 such audits have been done on dairies around the world.

Seven of the nation’s top cattle operations were recognized as Environmental Stewardship Award Program (ESAP) regional winners for their environmental conservation efforts during the 2022 National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Cattle Industry Convention & Trade Show in Houston, Texas.

Owning nearly half of the farmland in Iowa, women landowners play an influential role in decisions that impact agriculture and natural resources.