From horse power to high-tech, a century of farming innovation

One of my favorite movies is Back to the Future.

In fact, the hit track written for the movie-"Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News-was the "walk-in" song at my wedding reception.

Time-travel movies are fun because they let us look backward with nostalgia-old cars, vintage fashion, checker-print diners-and forward to a world where, as Doc Brown said, "We don't need roads."

As 246 Century Farms and 203 Heritage Farms were honored this year at the Iowa State Fair, I thought about the generations who came one hundred or more years before us.

Would they shout "Great Scott!" at today's self-driving tractors and drones? The use of artificial intelligence to improve animal health and comfort? The advancements in conservation practices?

For Greene County farmer Schyler Bardole, his century farm is living proof of how much agriculture has changed through the generations.

His great-grandfather was the first in his family line to trade horses and plows for a tractor. His grandpa, Roy, was the first in the county to use a GPS-guided tractor, an innovation he was highlighted for at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

That forward-thinking approach carried into conservation, too.

Because of Grandpa Roy's emphasis on soil health, the Bardoles were one of the first families in their area to adopt no-till and plant cover crops. They maintain vegetation along creeks and grassed waterways through fields to prevent soil and nutrient loss to nearby streams.

Livestock on Schyler's farm enhances his conservation plan.

He grows alfalfa on land unsuitable for growing corn and soybeans to provide a sustainable feed source for his Scottish Highland cattle. He has been slowly introducing satellite-drawn boundaries, similar to a wireless dog fence, to rotationally graze his cattle and keep living roots in the ground.

And unlike Biff's infamous run-in with manure in Back to the Future, Schyler steers the story in a positive direction. Manure from his pigs are upcycled into an organic, natural fertilizer proven to build soil structure. The family has also collaborated with the Coalition to Support Iowa's Farmers Green Farmstead Partner Program to plant trees along their barns to protect the environment.

"I've been lucky that my dad, my grandpa and great-grandpa have done their part to be conservation-minded," says Schyler. "I feel that responsibility for my kids and grandkids someday. I want to leave our farm better than I found it because that's what we've been doing since we started."

To quote a line from Back to the Future 3: "Your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. Your future is whatever you make it. So, make it a good one."

Through conservation, innovation and a focus on family, the Bardoles, and many other farm families throughout the state, are doing just that.