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Iowan farmer talks sustainable agriculture at the Figgie

The Stock Cropper, aka ClusterCluck, prototype.
StockCropper Website
The Stock Cropper, aka ClusterCluck, prototype.

A farmer from Winnebago County is sharing his conservation practices to better agriculture.

Zachary Smith is a fifth-generation farmer who took over his family's 120-year-old farm in 2014. Smith and two other farmers, Sheldon Stevermer and Lance Peterson, created the Stock Cropper, which reintroduces livestock and row crops in the field.

Smith says the group in 2020 sought solutions for consolidated and highly specialized agriculture. "So it's taking the current paradigm and flipping it on its head, going back to an older style where we integrate livestock and crops together [as] farms looked like back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s," Smith said in a phone interview with WVIK. "Where farms had a lot of diversity, more than just corn and soybeans, had a lot of different species of livestock that [are] all kind of integrated."

Zack Smith, Sheldon Stevermer and Lance Peterson. The founders of the Stock Cropper.
Stock Cropper Website
Zack Smith, Sheldon Stevermer and Lance Peterson. The founders of the Stock Cropper.

Smith expands, saying instead of planting and harvesting 80 acres of corn, farmers can interlace strips of pasture every 20 feet. That's where Smith and his fellow small-scale farmers introduce the mobile grazing barn they call the Cluster Cluck. The Cluster Cluck houses livestock, including sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens. The animals march under the mobile barn powered by solar energy that an app can control.

"And it's a synergistic system because it forms a perfect rotation where the animals are there to be raised and fed out to produce value from the pasture-raised protein they produce. And the corn is there to be raised, not to go to an ethanol plant, but to produce the feedstock the next year to feed back the livestock," Smith said. "And then at the end of the year, you simply take the field and flip the strips of where the animals went and fertilize the ground. The next year, you'll plant corn."

Smith and the other farmers hope to have the Stock Cropper available on the market within the next two years. Their website has a waitlist and more information.

Iowans who want to learn more about their state's agriculture can visit the Practical Farmers of Iowa, based in Ames. According to Smith, the organization hosted groups in his field to better educate themselves on current practices.

Smith says the industry is in an intense transition, but he has hope, "There's a lot of negative things in the news about agriculture, but I think there's a lot of positive solutions. But it's going to take mindsets that come from outside of the box or the normal channels to solve and address them with the changing needs of society and producing protein and crops in conjunction in a favorable way with the environment."

River Action is asking Smith to speak at its 2025 Environmental Film Series after a showing of Food Inc. 2. Smith was included in the 2023 documentary. The showing is Sunday afternoon at 3 at the Figgie. Tickets are $7 and free for students.

2025 Environmental Film Series lineup
River Action Website
2025 Environmental Film Series lineup

This story was produced by WVIK, Quad Cities NPR. We rely on financial support from our listeners and readers to provide coverage of the issues that matter to the Quad Cities region and beyond. As someone who values the content created by WVIK's news department, please consider making a financial contribution to support our work.

Brady is a 2021 Augustana College graduate majoring in Multimedia Journalism-Mass Communication and Political Science. Over the last eight years, he has reported in central Illinois at various media outlets, including The Peoria Journal Star, WCBU Peoria Public Radio, Advanced Media Partners, and WGLT Bloomington-Normal's Public Media.