The Beginning

The Iowa Farm Science was a magazine-type publication that was distributed each month by the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, The Extension Service in Agriculture and Home Economics, Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and the United States Department of Agriculture. Starting January 1935 and ceasing publication in 1971, the Iowa Farm Science and its predecessors, The Iowa Farm Economist and The Farm Science Reporter presented the results of scientific research to farm and home readers. A study by John F. Heer in 1950 concluded that the circulation reached close to 18,000 readers.

For the Iowa farmer, The Iowa Farm Science covered a variety of subjects including: handling and feeding livestock; market prospects; livestock and poultry disease; current livestock and grain markets, corn and other field crops; care and use of farm machinery; contouring, terracing, drainage, etc.; repairing and constructing barns, hog houses etc.; farm accident prevention; keeping poultry; and corn loans and other federal programs.
For the Iowa homemaker subjects covered in the magazine included: recipes and meal planning; canning and preserving food; patterns, sewing, and fashions; home improvement; keeping poultry; health and medicine; kitchen and home equipment; gardening; child care; beauty care.

Readers of the Iowa Farm Science saw it as an authoritative and dependable publication. The Iowa Farm science played an important role in educating Iowa farmers and their families about agriculture in Iowa until its discontinuation in 1971.