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Southwest Iowa family receives Good Farm Neighbor Award

A southwest Iowa farm family has been recognized as a 2023 winner of the Wergin Good Farm Neighbor Award.

Dennis Liljedahl and his family raise corn, soybeans, and 3,000 wean-to-finish hogs in Page County. “We’re not perfect,” he said. “We know we make mistakes, but we try to take care of the soil and the environment.”

The award is presented annually to Iowa livestock farmers who go above and beyond as environmental stewards and animal caretakers.

Liljedahl tells Brownfield the pork industry is vital to Iowa agriculture. “When you consider how much corn and soybeans go into the livestock feed,” he said, “and then the amount of inexpensive, high-quality protein we grow in Iowa that goes around the world.”

According to the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers, the Liljedahl family has implemented numerous water quality and conservation practices, including the utilization of no-till planting and the seeding of 1,000 acres of cereal rye as a cover crop each year for the past four years.