Northwest Iowa Agribusiness Integrated Crop Management Project

Report prepared by Peggy Petrzelka, Steve Padgitt,  Renea Miller and Jennifer Britton, Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.  This project has been funded by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship through a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Agreement Number APPP-95-01.

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About the Survey…

The purpose of the Northwest Iowa Agribusiness Integrated Crop Manage-ment (ICM) project is to work with agricultural supply dealers to develop the capacity of these businesses to deliver intensive, fee-based ICM assistance to their clients. The project covers a nine-county area in northwestern Iowa (Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Dickinson, Emmett, O'Brien, Osceola, Palo Alto, and Pocahontas).

In winter 1996, Iowa State University Extension conducted a survey of managers of agricultural supply dealers in the northwest area of Iowa. Surveys were conducted by face-to-face interviews. A list of dealers was obtained from the Agribusiness Association of Iowa. In total, 43 interviews with managers or agronomists were completed from 47 businesses identified in the region, for a response rate of 91 percent. Of the 43 respondents, 15 were agronomy department heads, 14 were managers of the business, 8 were staff agronomists and 6 held other positions in the firm.

Thirty-five of the 43 businesses employ agronomists, with an average of two certified agronomists per business.  Twenty-seven of these 35 businesses reported their agronomists were CCA/ARCPACS certified.

Shaded counties are those included in the study.

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