Dave Coppess, Executive Vice President of Heartland Co-op in Iowa, announced his retirement in December 2020. Coppess worked for decades in the ag retail, fertilizer, and ag chemicals industry, serving in multiple management roles with Heartland.
In the early 1990s he worked for Farmland Industries as National Accounts Sales Manager and Marketing Manager for Ag Chemicals. He also served as chairman of the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) and received ARA’s 2009 ARA Distinguished Service Award (GM Dec. 7, 2009). Recent awards included the Career Conservation Achievement Award, which was presented to Coppess by the Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance (IAWA) in November 2020 for his work in improving conservation and water quality in Iowa.
Coppess also served as chair of the Agriculture’s Clean Water Alliance (ACWA), where he worked to expand water quality monitoring and programming in Iowa and helped Heartland become one of the first ag retailers in the nation to partner with the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to enroll CCAs in conservation planning training.