Funding Freeze Hobbles Farm Conservation

Feb 24, 2025

By Marc Heller

The Trump administration’s freeze on grants and contracts is hitting rural Iowa especially hard, and a farm conservation group laid off nearly all of its staff last week after the flow of money from the Department of Agriculture stopped.

“I’m a one-man show right now,” said Dien Judge, executive director of the Conservation Districts of Iowa, after he was forced to lay off all but one — himself — of a staff of 39.

The association, a nonprofit organization that works with conservation districts throughout the state, has three major grants through the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service totaling slightly more than $12 million, Judge said.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.