US envoy helps buoy farm like Iowa's

A delegation of nearly 50 people from the US state of Iowa started their 10-day visit to China on Sunday and a groundbreaking for a China-US Friendship Demonstration Farm, believed to be the first of its kind, is set for Saturday.

Terry Branstad, the new US ambassador to China, will attend the ceremony, according to a news release from the Iowa Sister States commission, a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to manage Iowa's official relationships with foreign states and provinces. The organization was established when Branstad was governor.

The China-US Friendship Demonstration Farm, to be located in Luanping county, Hebei province, will include an educational agriculture site modeled after a farm near Maxwell, Iowa, owned by Rick and Martha Kimberley and their son Grant. The demonstration farm is a joint project of Iowa and Hebei. Its educational components will include visuals of modern agriculture technology such as machinery, and advances such as grain storage and drying, as well as test plots.