Mathis/Cory Goes Organic

By Denice Rackley
Land in central Iowa is prime real estate, but in the 1870s when the Mathis family came to the area, opportunities and religious and political freedoms attracted immigrants, and the fertile Iowa prairie gave them ample reason to stay.
Sitting a stone’s throw away from both I-80 and I-35, past residents of the farm wouldn’t believe the land they once walked now sells by the square foot. A Des Moines suburb, Ankeny seems to grow by the day. Not long ago, farms dotted the rolling hills; now houses sprout overnight.

Witnessing profound changes in his lifetime, Jim Mathis will be 82 this summer. The barn stalls that used to contain horses are now used for storage. The smell of horse sweat and hay has been replaced by oil and gasoline fueling equipment that farmers of his generation couldn’t have even dreamt of in their youth.

The rural rite of passage of summers spent detasseling corn has faded into stories told to kids with access to the world in the palm of their hands.

In the house that quietly whispers of times past, Mary Cory and her husband, Tom, have raised their family in the same house she and her dad grew up in. “The original farmhouse where my great, great-grandparents lived is no longer here. Our house was built in 1909 and has been home to five generations,” Cory noted.

Iowa agriculture runs deep on this land. “My grandfather, R.C. Mathis began Iowa State Hybrid Seed Company. He was a contemporary of Henry Wallace, who founded Pioneer Hybrids.”

Large iron horseshoes rise from the fields where work horses once pulled plows. Cory sees the horseshoes as silent reminders of all the blood, sweat and tears this land has absorbed over the last century and a half.

“I am very blessed that my family has been able to keep this land and make a living here, handing it down to subsequent generations,” said Cory.

When Cory graduated from high school in 1988, Ankeny was home to around 5,000 people. The latest data from 2024 has the population listed as 76,000.

Shifting Away From Conventional Farming

The Mathis/Cory farm is about 400 acres total if you add the crop ground owned by Mathis to the 100 acres of pasture land the Corys own. But the amount of land isn’t what’s important to Cory; it’s the peace of mind that comes from knowing that she is growing food she doesn’t have to apologize for.

Like most of the surrounding land, the Mathis farm grew conventional corn and soybeans. One of the things we all can count on is change – change comes to families and agriculture.

The Corys life revolved around their five children and livestock, with Tom’s days spent in the classroom teaching agriculture and working with FFA students. While the kids were growing up, Mary and Tom fed out calves and had a flock of ewes, direct marketing grass-fed beef and lamb. They supplied local restaurants and delivered to local customers in addition to having on-farm pick up.

Mary enjoyed raising livestock, and Tom gravitated to marketing. “Tom was a teacher and loves interacting with people and passing on some of his knowledge. Direct marketing suited Tom, giving him a pathway to discuss farming with customers,” Cory said.

As Mary’s dad began contemplating retirement, Mary’s son, Gavin, asked about establishing 20 acres of organic crop production that he would direct market. Mary and Tom were already direct marketing meat, adding organic produce seemed like a good fit to the family’s naturally raised beef and lamb.

A few years later Gavin married and moved to Minnesota, but the first organic acres sparked an idea. “I began thinking about continuing what Gavin had begun. Maybe I could rent the farm and transition it to organic production.”

With her father’s blessing, the Corys began planning the slow transition in 2019. Following conventional soybeans, the ground was planted to organic oats underseeded with alfalfa and grasses for hay production. Oats were harvested, and the forages remained to be harvested the following year as hay. Corn planted the next spring completed the transition from conventional farming to organic.

“As the work was looking like it would pay off, a few days before corn harvest in 2020, a derecho came through. After just 40 minutes, the field was flattened,” said Cory. Fortunately, even with the decreased harvest, Cory was able to meet her obligations. As everyone in farming knows, nothing is guaranteed.

Despite the challenges Cory believes, for her, growing organics are the way to go. In 2025, all 300 acres became certified organic. “Our corn and soybeans go to livestock feed, but the high-quality oats typically make food grade,” she says proudly. Cory hopes to integrate cover crops and livestock onto the producing acres to add some natural weed control and nutrients.

It isn’t only the planting and growing of organic crops that present unique challenges. Harvesting does too, especially if you hire it done. With few organic farms in the area, all hired harvest equipment must be disassembled and thoroughly cleaned before harvesting organic grains. And storage facilities require similar attention to detail.