ALTURA, Minn. — How one farm is utilizing rotational grazing and diversity to return cattle to the land will be the focus of a field day Wednesday, June 25, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., at Hoosier Ridge Ranch in Altura (15998 County Road 26). This field day, which is sponsored by the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) and Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), is free and open to the public. A meal featuring Hoosier Ridge Ranch burgers will follow the field day. To reserve a spot, see https://bit.ly/HoosierFD or contact LSP’s Alex Romano at aromano@landstewardshipproject.org.

Since purchasing Hoosier Ridge in 2020, Eric and Michelle Heins have converted the cropland to pasture. They custom farm a diverse rotation of crops, covers, and small grains on neighboring farms, including an established prairie on Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) land.

The focus of this field day will be cash-flowing the conversion to pasture on owned versus rented cropland, stockpiling pasture for winter grazing, mechanical buckthorn clearing for silvopasture, grazing agreements on DNR prairie and neighboring cropland, utilizing a sudangrass mix after a canning pea crop and managing an extended rotation with oats, barley and Kernza.

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The Land Stewardship Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to an ethic of stewardship for farmland, promoting sustainable agriculture and developing healthy communities. LSP has offices in the Minnesota communities of Lewiston, Montevideo and South Minneapolis. More information is at landstewardshipproject.org.

 Practical Farmers of Iowa was founded in 1985 as an organization for farmers. It uses farmer-led investigation and information sharing to help farmers practice an agriculture that benefits both the land and people. More information is at practicalfarmers.org.