LEWISTON, Minn. — If you are a crop or livestock farmer in southeastern Minnesota, the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) invites you to join the Soil Builders’ Network to receive regular updates on workshops, field days and on-farm demonstrations related to the latest in soil health and cover-cropping. The Soil Builders’ Network was launched earlier this year to establish an extensive network of farmers interested in building back their soil using innovative crop and livestock systems. To join the free network, sign up at https://landstewardshipproject.org/stewardshipfood/lspsoilbuilders or call LSP’s Shona Snater at 507-523-3366.

The interest in building healthy soil is greater than ever, as is evidenced by the standing-room-only Soil Builders’ workshops that were held across southeastern Minnesota this past winter, according to Snater, who is an LSP organizer. She added that with crop prices at low levels and CEOs of big agribusiness firms seeing huge returns, regional farmers are looking to improve their soil, yields and finances through soil building practices, rather than relying as much on costly input-driven systems.

“Whether farming conventional or organic, it’s clear that there are tremendous opportunities for building soil that will boost the farm’s health and financial viability,” Snater said. “It’s also clear that there are many questions about how to do this. Learning from fellow farmers experimenting with new ideas will be key to getting those questions answered. The Soil Builders’ Network will help develop regional farmer-to-farmer information sharing on soil building practices that involve reduced tillage, cover cropping and livestock incorporation.”

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