(Tom Jirik wrote columns in several newspapers in Iowa from the late 1980’s to the mid 1990’s.  This column originally appeared in the The Boone Today)

Baseball players and football players (except for the Bills and the Cowboys) are in their off-season.  There is no such off-season for farmers.

Farmers are busy ordering seeds, fuel and other supplies.  They bone up on the latest techniques and technology.  They repair equipment.  They make crop and marketing plans.  Success in farming depends as much on winter planning as it does on spring planting, summer cultivation and fall harvest.  Success will elude any farmer who bungles one of those steps.

This is also the season for farm policy making.  What the Iowa Legislature and the U.S. Congress do can make a world of difference in how a Boone County farmer goes about his business.

Recently, lawmakers have been trying to encourage farmers to use more sustainable techniques on their farms.  As environmental concerns grow, that trend is likely to see more action this year.

A recent report from the U.S. Soil Conservation Service indicates the lawmakers may be seeing some success.

According to Jeff Vonk, Iowa State conservationist for the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, Iowa farmers are using more conservation farming practices than ever before.  During the last year, grassed waterway acreage in Iowa increased by 900 percent.  Corn and soybeans planted into last year’s crop residue without tillage increased by 650 percent.  Contoured acres were up 400 percent.  Terraces increased 23 percent and acres panted on land with at least 15 percent of the ground covered with residue was up 36 percent

Maybe I’m not looking in the right places or maybe ice is holding Iowa’s soil in place, but the snow drifts along Boone County roads look cleaner this winter.

There’s little that can be done to keep livestock odors and other agriculture-related “perfume” from wafting across the countryside.  That’s why the Iowa legislature is presently considering a bill that would allow counties to classify areas as agricultural enterprise zones.  The Associated Press reports that people living in those zones could not bring legal action against the farmer “because of livestock odors and other non threatening aspects of farm life.”

Urban workers move to suburban and rural areas to find solitude, security and fresh air of country living, but are unprepared for the dust, odor and noise that accompany some farm operations.  The proposed legislation would give farmers much needed protection from expensive nuisance suits.

This legislation and a host of other farm-related issues before the legislature and congress this winter will have a direct impact on Boone County farmers.  It’s a big job to keep up with it all.

Add those political issues to the mix of planning and preparation tasks farmers face now, and you can see that farmers may be off the field, but they’re not enjoying the off-season break.