Spotlight Series
Working with Farmers to Improve Sustainability in Iowa
In Iowa, one Sustainability and Nutrient Management Specialist with more than 19 years of advising experience under his belt works with farmers to improve their nutrient management plans.
Jeff Koops’ primary role at the Farmers Coop Society (FCS) is to help clients best utilize the manure produced on their operations. Central to this is helping his clients think through their livestock operations and how to apply manure sustainably, reducing soil and nutrient erosion.
In the summer of 2021 Jeff and FCS continued to support farmers by partnering with Truterra, an agriculture sustainability business. Since then, Jeff has emerged as the leader of the Truterra sustainability tool implementation for FCS – a tool fully integrated with Field to Market’s Fieldprint Platform®. By using this tool with growers, they can develop a stewardship baseline for every field and then predict and measure the impact of implementing specific conservation practices on the environment and their profitability.
“Jeff has an outsized impact on FCS and his clients. His leadership at FCS, as the point person for the Truterra sustainability tool, has been critical to FCS’s success in getting approximately 41,000 acres enrolled,” said Truterra President Jamie Leifker. “Jeff goes above and beyond to support conservation agriculture. I’m thrilled that he is being honored for his outstanding leadership.”
“Through this work, we get people exposed to things like cover crops and a potential reduction in tillage practices, with an opportunity for a monetary reward,” explains Koops. “A lot of times I work with growers on this who are looking to take that next step on their sustainability journey and it’s exciting to get to help them move along that road and show them the benefits involved.”
Jeff Koops
Sustainability and Nutrient Management Specialist
Farmer's Co-Op Society
Iowa
“We advisers need to be a trusted source for growers. We need to get information to them about what works and doesn’t work, and be a reliable source for any questions they might have along the way.”
Jeff Koops
Sustainability and Nutrient Management Specialist
Farmer’s Co-Op Society
On top of his FCS role, Koops is also a Technical Service Provider (TSP) for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and, as such, works with cost-share recipients to develop their Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans.
As a Board Member for the TSP Network, a national organization that promotes efficiency, consistency, and productivity in conservation planning by training and supporting TSPs, he furthers his impact by sharing his knowledge of ways to improve soil and water quality with others to help support and strengthen their work with growers.
“We advisers need to be a trusted source for growers,” says Koops. “We need to get information to them about what works and doesn’t work, and be a reliable source for any questions they might have along the way.”
Wanting to do what’s best for the area, the land, and more, Koops hopes that his work will make a lasting impact on the sustainability efforts of the area.
“When all is said and done, I hope to leave the legacy that we gave all our customers the opportunity to try different things like this and helped them along,” remarks Koops. “I want to have encouraged and challenged them to think outside the box and continuously improve.”
