Minnesota Soil Health Story: Rhyan Schicker

**Rhyan Schicker planting trees for field windbreaks to decrease wind erosion while providing habitat.**

When I first moved to Minnesota eight years ago, my knowledge of soils and agricultural systems was purely textbook. I live and work in an amazing community that has taught me more than I ever expected to learn, and has pulled back the curtain on our current farming systems and the ways in which they work. I can say from personal experience that until you work within these systems, you really don’t understand the rules and limitations and it’s very easy to make assumptions on “what farmers should do.” I think something we can all agree on is that soil health makes up the building blocks of our food systems.

**Rhyan using custom equipment to plant long shelterbelt tree lines to prevent soil erosion.**

Our soil provides us so much more than we give it credit for. I wish there was a way we could go back in time, before corporate and commercial agriculture, to when we listened to what the land was telling us and responded accordingly, rather than in the quickest, most extractive ways. Nature gets it right, and my hope is that we can refocus to mimic her to the fullest extent possible. Both professionally and personally, I want to continue having conversations and sharing perspectives with farmers, landowners and managers, so that it’s not one or the other, farming versus conservation. Soil health isn’t just good for the environment — it’s an increase in our return on investment, it’s resiliency, and it’s a step towards cutting out unnecessary inputs to gain independence from corporations telling us what we need on the land they’ll never have a relationship with.

**Exploring the roots of Kernza, a perennial crop, via a soil pit.**

I feel honored to work in a soil health-focused field, in a state with some of the world’s best soils. I feel even more lucky to have my own small piece of land to raise healthy food on, while practicing what I preach: prioritizing soil healthy practices that also provide habitat for pollinators and wildlife. We need our state to support farmers’ ability to farm in a way that is both sustainable and economically secure, as we all benefit from clean water, healthy soil, and having small family-run farms on our landscape.

Rhyan Schicker is the district manager of the Lac qui Parle Soil and Water Conservation District in western Minnesota.

**Evaluating pollinator planting on unproductive ag land and finding sphinx moth caterpillars on butterfly milkweed.**

Support Minnesota Soil Health Legislation Today

Building healthy soil across Minnesota is key to creating resiliency in the face of a changing climate and is also incredibly important in supporting clean water. We all want clean drinking water for our families and communities.

Right now, bills are being heard in the Minnesota Legislature that could affect drinking water throughout the state and help farmers adopt practices that build soil health. Please sign the Land Stewardship Project’s petition to show your support for farmers, for soil health, and for clean water in Minnesota!

Two bills are being considered in the House regarding soil health (and two versions of the same bills in the Senate). One is to allocate grants for soil health-related equipment to individual farmers and Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs). The other supports a Southeast Regional Groundwater Protection and Soil Health Initiative in Minnesota. In this second bill, funding would go to SWCDs in the southeastern part of the state and would be spent on expanding the impact of the Olmsted County Groundwater Protection and Soil Health Program, which has become a model for encouraging farmers to adopt practices that produce results when it comes to improving soil health and protecting water quality.

Upcoming Events

December 2025

Wednesday December 10

9:00 am – 11:30 am

Organic Fruit Growers Climate Resilience Workshop

Wednesday December 10

9:00 am – 11:30 am

Organic Fruit Growers Climate Resilience Workshop

Zoom online

In December and January, the Organic Fruit Growers Association is offering a series of climate resilience workshops. Workshop goals are to learn about the changing climate in our region and the expected impacts on fruit farmers and to select climate resilience practices which are suited to your farm’s goals and values. The outcome of the workshops will be a written climate resilience plan with actionable steps to make your farm more resilient to changing climate.

Workshops will be led by University of Minnesota extension educators Katie Black and Madeline Wimmer and include times for farmer-to-farmer discussion. This series includes the following four meetings. Expect to spend an additional 4-10 hours outside the meetings developing your farm’s climate resilience plan:

Wednesday Dec. 3, 9 a.m.-11:30 a.m. (online via Zoom)
Wednesday, Dec. 10, 9 a.m.-11:30 a.m. (online via Zoom)
Monday, Dec. 22, discussion (online via Zoom — optional but encouraged)
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. (in-person workshop in La Crosse, Wis. Lunch provided, and you can be reimbursed for mileage traveling to and from the meeting.)

For details and to register, click here.

6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

How to Make Your Farm's Website Convert Visitors to Customers

Wednesday December 10

6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

How to Make Your Farm's Website Convert Visitors to Customers

Zoom Online

Join Sarah Carroll of Greener Pastures and Michelle M Sharp of Meet the Minnesota Makers in this 90-minute virtual workshop to learn about what your business website needs to tell its story, engage customers, and turn visits into real sales.

This workshop lays out the essential components of a user-friendly website for direct-to-consumer farms or food producers. No prior website skills are required.

Topics covered:

• How to make your products searchable by customers.

• What makes a compelling About Me page.

• The right balance of images to text.

• How to engage customers right from your home page.

• Incorporating FAQs.

Who this training is for:

This workshop is ideal for the farm or ag business that has launched an initial website that’s ready to upgrade or for the farm that has not yet created its own website. This workshop is both for farmers/food producers and ag ecosystem professionals that support farmers/food producers in their marketing and website efforts.

For details and to register, click here.

Thursday December 18

All Day

MDA Urban Farm Conservation Mini-grant Deadline

Thursday December 18

MDA Urban Farm Conservation Mini-grant Deadline

MDA

A grant opportunity for urban farmers in Minnesota to receive up to $5,000 to make conservation-focused improvements is now open for applications.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is once again offering an Urban Farm Conservation Mini-grant with approximately $100,000 available, thanks to funding from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. This year the program has expanded eligibility.

Who is eligible:

Entities commercially farming in Minnesota, meaning they sell or donate at least $1,000 of what they produce.
Farm applicants must be located in or selling into a city with a population over 5,000 people, or be located within the boundaries of federally recognized tribal land in Minnesota and serve tribal community members.

The grant offers up to $5,000 per approved recipient which can be used to cover a variety of tools, supplies, services, and other expenses related to improving their urban farm.

Eligible projects include irrigation infrastructure improvements, tools and amendments for improving soil health, composting infrastructure, specialty crop rotation equipment and many other farm improvements which generate conservation outcomes.

Up to 100% of the total project costs may be covered by the grant, and a cash match is not required. Grantees will need to pay for eligible expenses up front and then request reimbursement, using proof of purchase and proof of payment.

An informational session will take place online at 1 p.m. on November 20 and registration is required. Language interpretation services may be requested for the information session by contacting Emily Toner at emily.toner@state.mn.us.

This is a competitive grant program and applications must be submitted by December 18.

Visit the Urban Farm Conservation Grant web page for more information on its application. The Request for Proposals is available for download in English, Spanish, Hmong and Somali.

11:00 am – 2:00 pm

Managing Cover Crops Effectively

Thursday December 18

11:00 am – 2:00 pm

Managing Cover Crops Effectively

830 Whitewater Ave, St Charles, MN 55972, USA

Program Includes:

Introduction to cover crop management
Funding and cost-share opportunities
Farmer panel and Q & A with panelists Mike Unruh, Ken Bergler, and Myron Sylling

Presentations from: Bailey Tangen (UMN) and Brad Jordahl Redlin (MDA).

Holiday conservation mixer following program.

This event is free but registration is required. For more information and to register, click here or call 262-325-6637. Details are also available on this flyer.

1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Workshop: Sharing No-till Knowledge & Microbial Insights

Thursday December 18

1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Workshop: Sharing No-till Knowledge & Microbial Insights

Olmsted County Public Works Service Center, 1188 50 St SE, Rochester, MN 55904, USA

Whitewater Gardens, The Olmsted SWCD, and The University of Minnesota Extension Olmsted County is offering a workshop called The Living Soil Roundtable: Sharing No-Till Knowledge and Microbial Insights. This workshop will offer practical information on how to read soil tests (both the Haney and the Soil Food Web), share findings from a recent NRCS SARE research project Optimizing No-Till Methods for a Direct-to-Market Organic Vegetable Farm on various mulching methods (deep composting, cut and carry, and living mulch), and provide plenty of time for questions and answers to discuss incorporating mulching in reduced till systems as a weed management practice and how to incorporate practices to increase soil microbiology.

Participants are encouraged to bring soil or compost samples for viewing under a microscope and for analysis to detect microbial life. Class cost is free and will be held at Olmsted County Public Works Service Center (1188 50 St SE, Rochester, MN 55904) on December 18th from 1- 4 PM.

Register at z.umn.edu/soilroundtable. Contact Shona Langseth at
shona.langseth@olmstedcounty.gov or 507-328-6905 with any questions.

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