PAULLINA, Iowa and WESTMINSTER, Colo., Dec. 05, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Niman Ranch has named the Wilson family of Seven W Farm as its 2025 Sustainable Farm of the Year, an honor coinciding with World Soil Health Day. The recognition highlights the family’s leadership in restoring soil health, protecting local waterways and demonstrating how small, diversified farms can be key to addressing Iowa’s mounting water quality challenges.
“The Wilson family represents the very best of Niman Ranch’s values,” shared Paul Willis, Niman Ranch’s founding hog farmer from Thornton, Iowa and close friend of the Wilsons for nearly 30 years. “They are not just raising pigs for Niman Ranch; they are actively improving the land, setting an example for the future of agriculture and demonstrating real opportunity for family-scale farms across Iowa.”
A Different Way to Farm
At Seven W Farm, three generations of the Wilson family—Dan and his wife, Lorna, their daughter April and sons Jaron and Torray with their growing families—have spent decades pioneering a different model. Dan and Jaron grow Certified Organic corn, soy, rye, barley, oats and more. Torray’s family manages the Certified Organic dairy herd. April raises chickens and pigs. The family’s 660-acre diversified farm uses practices that keep nutrients cycling within the soil rather than flowing into local waterways.
Soil health is built on the farm through a carefully planned crop rotation that changes each year. As Torray explains, “the rotation tends to be a corn–soybean–small grain, often seeded with clover, alfalfa, forbs or cool-season grasses, followed by hay or pasture for one to five years before repeating.” He adds, “the use of diverse ‘full season’ cover crops and perennial pastures, grazed intensively with cattle and supplemented with aged manure or compost extracts, has offered the biggest boost to soil health we have observed.”
Pigs as Partners in Soil Health
A core part of the Wilsons’ sustainability story is the deep bedding system for raising their Niman Ranch pigs, where layers of straw and crop residue mix with hog manure to create rich compost. As the pigs move through the bedding, they naturally aerate the material so it breaks down into a stable, soil-building amendment.
This process turns a potential waste problem into a powerful solution. The resulting compost adds rich organic matter to the fields, strengthens the soil structure and ensures nitrogen stays anchored where crops need it, not in the rivers.
April Wilson is passionate about integrating her herd of pigs with the land, not just for the soil health benefits but also for animal welfare. “My grandpa moved pigs outdoors because he believed animals should fully express their natural behaviors,” she shared. “I’m proud to carry that legacy forward, proving regenerative farming can support families while leaving the land better than we found it.”
The “Giant Sponge” Effect
By composting, cover cropping and rotationally grazing, the Wilsons are creating a system that protects their soil year-round. During heavy rains, water sinks into their fields rather than rushing off into nearby streams.
Torray describes the effect simply: “We like to think of our land as a giant sponge.” The better the soil structure—built by earthworms, fungi and other microorganisms—the more water the ground can absorb and hold. This makes the farm more resilient to both dry spells and extreme flooding.
On-farm tests make the difference visible in measurable terms, with water infiltration rates from 4–8 inches an hour, significantly higher than the estimated 0.5 inch per hour reported by conventional farms in the area. Torray notes that even with these strong results, they still aim higher with a goal of 10-15 inches per hour. This matters far beyond a single field or farm, but also for the entire community by reducing runoff and flash flooding.
A Scalable Solution
New research from Niman Ranch and GrowWell, to be published in a forthcoming report, details the positive effects of regenerative practices like those in place on the Wilson Family’s land across Niman Ranch’s network of hog farms. Early findings show a model that builds soil health, supports biodiversity and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, pointing to a scalable path for protecting waterways while keeping small farms viable by raising happy hogs.
In celebration of the Sustainable Farm of the Year award, Niman Ranch has made a donation to the Iowa Organic Association, an organization the Wilson’s credit with helping them troubleshoot challenges and drive innovation on their farm.
About Niman Ranch
Niman Ranch is a community of more than 600 independent family farmers and ranchers who raise pork, beef and lamb using traditional, humane and sustainable practices. As the largest Certified Humane® farmer network in North America, Niman Ranch provides the protein of choice for celebrated chefs and home cooks seeking meat Raised with Care®—with no antibiotics or added hormones, ever. Learn more at nimanranch.com.
Media Contact:
Alicia LaPorte
Senior Director of Communications and Impact, Niman Ranch
860-869-9788, [email protected]
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2e02fc25-678f-4796-ba29-d764f04018f3