BY DOUG SCHMITZ
Iowa Correspondent

AMES, Iowa — Of the more than 1,300 Iowa farmers surveyed in the longest-running farm poll of its kind in the nation, on average, 48 percent earned more than half of their income from the land.

That’s according to the results of the 2010 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll where state farmers offered their views on community and economic development issues affecting rural communities across Iowa and the Midwest – especially over the last three decades.
“This year we looked back to assess how responses regarding community life and neighboring have changed over the years,” said Iowa State University (ISU) Extension Sociologist J. Gordon Arbuckle, Jr., who co-directs the survey with fellow ISU Extension Sociologist Paul Lasley.

Conducted every year since 1982, the poll is gathered in cooperation with ISU Extension, the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, and the Iowa Agricultural Statistics Service.
Widely known as “The Farm Poll,” the overall objective of the poll – which is managed by ISU Extension sociologists – is to understand how the ongoing changes in Iowa’s agriculture and rural areas affect farmers and rural society as a whole.

The information is then used to guide policy decisions and actions, and as the basis for public policy seminars, Extension reports, radio and television broadcasts, and newspaper and journal articles, Arbuckle and Lasley said.

The 2010 survey, which was mailed in January and February to a statewide panel of 2,224 farmers, presents data on changes in perceptions about rural community life over time, including trends in quality of life, neighboring, access to services and commerce and population change. This year’s poll also examined farmers’ perspectives on Iowa prospects for agritourism, a potential source of economic development.

Arbuckle said one of the unique and important characteristics of the 28-year old farm poll is that its longevity allows for tracking changes over time.

“We had asked the same sets of questions in 1984, 1990, 1996, 2006 and 2010,” he said. “This year we analyzed some of the changes over time.”

Arbuckle said the survey results were mixed in 2010 concerning rural community changes, as well as when viewed over the past three decades. “Most of the declines appear to be related to changes in the social fabric of rural communities, whether from population loss or an influx of new residents as people have moved to rural areas to live on acreages or seek employment,” he said.
While both population loss and the arrival of new residents can change the ways that neighbors relate to each other, Arbuckle noted some positive changes. In 2010, Iowa farmers surveyed said they had slightly more time to visit with their neighbors and to be active in community affairs, Arbuckle said.

While not major shifts, Arbuckle said the trends suggest that farmers perceive modest improvements since 1982.

“Assessments of quality of life were also encouraging,” Arbuckle said. “Eighty-three percent of farmers reported that their quality of life had either remained the same or improved over the last five years, and 79 percent indicated that their quality of life would either stay the same or improve over the next five years.

“Despite the deep recession and some difficult weather-related events, Iowa farmers feel like they and their families maintained their quality of life and are optimistic about the future,” he added.
On Nov. 2, Iowans will be voting on an amendment to the Iowa constitution referred to as Iowa’s Water and Land Legacy, which would create a trust fund to finance the state’s conservation efforts.
The Iowa Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund would help protect and enhance water quality, conserve agricultural soils and establish, maintain and improve natural areas including parks, trails and fish and wildlife habitat, providing additional investment in agricultural conservation, wildlife habitat and natural resources-based recreation opportunities.

The 2010 poll included an entire section devoted exclusively to farmers’ opinions regarding conservation issues, entitled Farmers’ Views On Conservation Funding and Iowa’s Water and Land Legacy Amendment,” which asked farmers how they viewed these issues.
According to the amendment, 3/8 of 1 percent of any future sales tax increase in Iowa would be dedicated solely to natural resource conservation, which the amendment claimed wouldn’t raise additional taxes.

Overall, Arbuckle said Iowa farmers seemed to have viewed the amendment as possibly beneficial for rural communities.

“We asked farmers for their opinions about the potential benefits of increased public investment in conservation,” he said. “We also asked about their support for increased funding for conservation and whether they supported the trust fund initiative, specifically.
“The Farm Poll data indicates that a significant proportion of farmers support increased investments in conservation,” he said.
However, according to the poll results, Arbuckle added that more farmers were uncertain about the amendment than were supportive or in opposition to it.

According to the results of the 2009 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll, as more farmers approached or reached retirement age, questions about retirement and farm succession plans increase in importance. The 2008 poll found that 42 percent of Iowa farmers planned to retire in the next five years, but only 56 percent had named a successor.