Cover crops proved themselves foul weather friends during the Great Drought of 2012. A groundbreaking farmer survey conducted in the Upper Mississippi River watershed showed that during that year’s brutal growing season keeping the soil covered with small grains and other plants helped fields preserve enough precious moisture to provide a yield bump of, in… Read More →
On Tuesday, June 11, I traveled to the Capitol from my home near the city of St. Charles, Minn., in Saratoga Township to meet with Governor Mark Dayton. My home is within a few miles of seven proposed frac sand mines. In February, I traveled to the state Capitol for the first time in my… Read More →
One of the nation’s most innovative working lands farm conservation initiatives has received a financial reprieve, thanks to the continuing resolution signed by President Barack Obama on Tuesday. The continuing resolution, which was passed by Congress late last week, appropriates funds to federal government agencies through the remainder of the government’s current fiscal year. The… Read More →
For residents of southeastern Minnesota, the past few months must seem like “The Season of the Nitrate.” It turns out nitrogen, that critical source of crop fertility, is quite adept at escaping our farm fields, and, in the form of nitrate, polluting groundwater. So much so that scientists, government officials, and physicians now recognize it… Read More →
As of today— April 10 — due to the outbreak of COVID-19, nearly 350,000 Minnesotans have applied for unemployment benefits. That is already more than the total number of applicants in all of 2019. Nationally, 16.6 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits in the past three weeks. In the wake of a global pandemic,… Read More →
We at the Land Stewardship Project have a strong vision for rural Minnesota where our communities are vibrant, our soil and water healthy and our local economies are strong. Our vision for people and the land can’t happen without bold policies and a real investment of our public dollars. Our state leaders are not embracing… Read More →
NOTE: During a pair of Land Stewardship Project workshops Jan. 29 and 30, Dawn and Grant Breitkreutz will be discussing how they are using no-till row cropping, managed rotational grazing and diversified cover cropping to build soil health profitably on their southwestern Minnesota farm. For more background on the Breitkreutzes, check out this LSP blog… Read More →
A streak of creativity brightens the landscape when farmers join forces with scientists to investigate “the standard” of what we thought we already knew. Take, for example, the fresh look at how soil functions—collectively called soil health—that has been the talk of Land Stewardship Project workshops and field days the past five years or so.… Read More →
As the staff and member-leaders of the Land Stewardship Project conduct our organization’s work for stewardship and justice on the land, the central concept that keeps arising is “change comes from the ground up.” Whether the subject is farming practices, public policy or community vitality, thinking about positive change in this way is enormously helpful… Read More →
Just about halfway through Dennis Keeney’s slim memoir on his life in agriculture, the author’s tone changes dramatically. For 54 pages, The Keeney Place: A Life in the Heartland, delivers on its title—it offers a somewhat nostalgic glimpse at growing up during the mid-20th Century on a diverse family farm east of Des Moines, Iowa.… Read More →
