Recognizing Outstanding Leadership in Improving Conservation and Water Quality in Iowa.

Truterra is fortunate to work and partner with ag retailers who are leaders in their marketplace and making an impact in sustainable agriculture by finding opportunities and solutions to create a good return for farmers. More specifically, Truterra would like to congratulate Heartland Cooperative and Dave Coppess, VP of Agronomy for Heartland, for their outstanding leadership in improving conservation and water quality in Iowa.

On November 10^th, 2020, the Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance (IAWA) presented two awards at their annual business council meeting the 2020 IAWA Public-Private Award and the 2020 IAWA Career Conservation Achievement Award. 

The 2020 IAWA Public-Private Partnership award recipient was Truterra retailer Heartland Cooperative.  Heartland was selected for its role in the IAWA Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) projects. Heartland has documented a commitment of co-op resources such as staff time to provide agronomic advise, sponsorship of field days, equipment, and etc. equaling to $12M in in-kind support to the Midwest Agriculture Water Quality Partnership (MAWQP), which helped IAWA secure $20M in funding from USDA-NRCS for that project. The MAWQP is now a $100M project and has already improved conservation on over four million acres. Heartland also committed $2M of in-kind match to the new Iowa Systems Approach to Conservation Drainage RCPP, which helped IAWA secure a $10M award from USDA-NRCS earlier this year. IAWA and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) have leveraged Heartland’s generous match to secure a total of $30M in federal funding for public-private partnerships to improve water quality.
 
The IAWA presented Heartland VP of Agronomy, and Truterra Champion, Dave Coppess with the Career Conservation Achievement Award in recognition of the many contributions that Dave has made to improve conservation and water quality in Iowa. Dave helped to create the Agriculture’s Clean Water Alliance (ACWA). While Dave was chair of ACWA, that organization officially endorsed the Iowa’s Water and Land Legacy Campaign to increase sustainable funding for conservation in Iowa. Under Dave’s leadership, ACWA expanded water quality monitoring and programming in Iowa. Dave also helped to pioneer delivering conservation practices to farmers in the ag retail sector by making Heartland one of the first ag retailers in the nation to agree to partner together with NRCS, by enrolling Heartland CCA’s in conservation planning trainings, and through hiring two of the first conservation agronomists in the nation.
 
To learn more, visit www.iowaagwateralliance.com or www.truterraag.com.
 
About IAWA
The Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance (IAWA) is increasing the pace and scale of farmer-led efforts to improve water quality in Iowa. Founded in 2014 by Iowa Corn, the Iowa Soybean Association, and the Iowa Pork Producers Association, IAWA is building public-private partnerships focused on implementing water quality solutions.
 
About Truterra, LLC
Truterra (formerly Land O'Lakes SUSTAIN) is a leading stewardship solutions provider, advancing and connecting sustainability efforts throughout the food system with scale – from farmers to ag retailers to partners like food companies. Truterra positions farmers for success by providing them tools and resources to establish a stewardship baseline and track progress on every field they farm. The Truterra™ network brings together the best in agricultural technology and on-farm business management to drive sustainability across the food system, feeding people, safeguarding the planet and supporting farmer livelihoods. Truterra was launched in 2016 by Land O'Lakes, Inc., a member-owned cooperative that spans the spectrum from agricultural production to consumer foods.