Last week, a Greene County area farmer received a national award from the American Soybean Association for his conservation practices.

Fifth-generation Jefferson farmer David Ausberger received a ASA Conservation Legacy Award for his environmental and conservation practices, while maintaining profitable farming operations.

He’s farmland utilizes the no-till approach to plant crops which and he has planted thousands of trees to help repair buffer strips along with leaving some acres as grasslands to help reduce nitrites and pesticides from getting into the waterways.

Ausberger is also involved with Hardin Hilltop Wind and conserves energy by using wind and solar energy to power his work areas on his farm.

Another conservation practice he does is taking wood chips from the City of Jefferson and combine it with chicken or turkey litter to use as a source of soil manure to help with potential growth.

He explains why he continues to build the legacy that his family started many years ago with farming.

“We’ve spent 200 years figuring out ways to do something that Mother Nature took millions of years to figure out and try to change it for our own needs.  And maybe Mother Nature over a couple million years did have a pretty good system and if we can mimic it and still get a crop and help feed the world, that sounds like a win-win to me.”

Ausberger points out that this award was started ten years ago and out of all the farmers in the country, he is the second recipient in Greene County.  The other one was Jim Andrews in 2007.  He believes that says something about what the farmers are doing in Greene County, Iowa to help promote conservation practices on farmlands.

The award was given to Ausberger on Friday, February 28th at the ASA banquet in San Antonio, Texas.