That’s true for Dayton-area farmer Kellie Blair, who enjoyed growing up on a farm, spending time outdoors, watching the seasons change and staying curious about the natural world around her.

“Both my husband and I come from farm families who encouraged conservation,” said Blair, who recently received the Women Impacting Agriculture award from Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. “Now as a farm mom, I get to help pass that conservation legacy to our kids.”

Blair also remains curious about better ways to blend conservation with production agriculture. She shares her knowledge with other farmers, along with consumers who are interested in learning more about modern ag. Thanks to her involvement with various Iowa ag groups, for example, she has participated in social media question-and-answer sessions — live from the tractor — to help answer people’s questions about cover crops.

She speaks from a deep base of knowledge. “We have a lot of on-farm trials going on, and we focus on continuous improvement,” said Blair, 40, who farms with her husband, AJ, (the fourth generation of his family to farm the land) and his father, Kelly.

-Submitted photo
Kellie Blair farms with her family, which includes, from left, son Wyatt, 14; husband AJ, and daughter, Charlotte, 12.

Blair and her family (including son, Wyatt, 14, and daughter, Charlotte, 12) grow corn, soybeans, oats, alfalfa and cereal rye. They also have a 450-head cattle feedlot and manage 45 cow-calf pairs and a 2,400-head wean-to-finish swine barn.

While Blair is involved in all day-to-day aspects of the farming operation, she focuses on tracking all soil sampling and soil fertility planning. Blair and her family work closely with Angie Rieck-Hinz, an ISU Extension field agronomist who serves north-central Iowa, to increase the productivity and profitability of their farm through efficient, environmentally-conscious management.

“We regularly meet with Angie and other advisors to assess what’s working well, what we could do better, and how we can use the data we collect on our farm to make smarter management decisions,” Blair said.

Rieck-Hinz enjoys working with Blair.

“Kellie is highly curious and wants to learn all she can learn to improve things on her farm, including integrated pest management (IPM) practices and profitability. She’s heavily involved in the feedback loop on the farm, so she can truly identify the continuous improvement that is made. When things don’t go as planned, AJ and Kellie work as a team to re-evaluate and try again.”

-Submitted photo
Kellie Blair and her family raise cattle, hogs, corn, soybeans, oats, alfalfa and cereal rye near Dayton.

Rooted in the land

Blair’s interest in agriculture began when she was growing up on her family’s Century Farm near Pisgah in western Iowa. As a high school student, she considered a medical career but decided she wanted to work outdoors.

“I knew I wanted to work in agriculture, but I didn’t realize how deep this passion ran,” said Blair, who cites her parents, grandparents and husband as her biggest influences.

After earning her bachelor’s degrees in forestry and agronomy from Iowa State University in December 2006, Blair accepted a job with The Maschhoffs, a pork-production company. As a certified crop advisor and technical service provider with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Blair covered western Iowa, providing technical assistance to The Maschhoffs’ production partners, from writing swine manure management plans to assisting with neighbor relations.

Many of the practical lessons Blair learned through this work guide her role on her family’s farm. The Blairs include a wide range of conservation practices in their operation, from no-till and strip tillage to cover crops that limit erosion and enhance soil health. The Blairs also participate in the Iowa Nitrogen Initiative through ISU and the Iowa Soybean Association (ISA).

Nitrogen fertilizer is among the most critical inputs to crop production — and one of the costliest. When applied at the optimum rate, nitrogen boosts productivity and profitability and avoids the environmental costs of excess application. However, finding the optimum application rate can be a challenge, since it can vary dramatically year to year.

The Iowa Nitrogen Initiative is a private-public partnership that helps provide Iowans with the best nitrogen science in the world for the benefit of productivity, profitability, and environmental performance.

“We care about soil and water quality, and we think it’s important to take a voluntary approach to Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy,” said Blair, referring to a science- and technology-based framework to assess and reduce nutrients entering Iowa waters and the Gulf of Mexico.

Her efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. In 2017, Blair received the Iowa Secretary of Agriculture’s Iowa Ag Leader Award for outstanding leadership in improving Iowa’s water quality.

Speaking up for agriculture

Blair also looks for ways to help people gain a greater understanding of modern farming.

Through the years, the Blairs have hosted multiple field days for various organizations, from the Iowa Soybean Association to Iowa Learning Farms, which was founded in 2004 to help build a culture of conservation across Iowa and beyond by encouraging the adoption of conservation practices.

During a Soyfoods Council farm-and-food tour in Iowa, Blair and her family met with leading food bloggers, cookbook authors, dietitians and other key influencers.

“We want to be the ones telling our story, instead of letting someone else tell it,” said Blair, who also volunteers with Common Ground, a program sponsored by Iowa Corn, Iowa Soybean, the National Corn Growers Association, and the United Soybean Board, where farm women speak directly to consumers about their shared values for growing food. “That means inviting people out to our farm and letting them see everything that’s involved. Plus, the tours help us gain a better understanding of consumers’ concerns.”

Blair also participates in a strip-till/no-till discussion group facilitated by ISU, where farmers and others with experience with reducing tillage and no-till share their knowledge and act as a sounding board for people who want to adopt these farming practices.

“Leaders lift each other up,” said Rieck-Hinz, who noted that Blair’s humility, quiet confidence and enthusiasm attract those who want to learn more about crop and livestock production. “Leaders like Kellie make this a stronger world for everyone in agriculture.”

Blair, who is honored to receive the Women Impacting Agriculture award, looks forward to helping make her family’s farm more productive and profitable.

“Farmers can be a big part of the solution to not only provide healthy, affordable food, but leave the land better than we found it and protect Iowa’s natural resources. We never stop asking ‘why’ as we look for ways to do things better. I’m excited to accept this responsibility.”