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 →
Governor Mark Dayton announced in January his proposal to require an additional 125,000 acres of perennial vegetation along lakes, rivers and streams. There is a long history of utilizing such living borders to filter out fertilizers and herbicides, while fortifying streambanks and reducing the amount of eroded soil that ends up in the water. While… Read More →
It’s no secret that federally subsidized crop insurance makes it more attractive to till land that normally would be too wet, steep, lacking in fertility or otherwise “marginal” to raise a profitable crop on. But a recent study out of the University of Wisconsin attaches some solid numbers to just how much marginal land we’re… Read More →
I’ve been watching with great concern the outbreak of H5N2 highly pathogenic avian influenza in Minnesota turkey confinements. As of today, nine facilities in the state have been affected, including in Lac Qui Parle County, which borders Big Stone, where we live. I raise what the Minnesota Department of Agriculture refers to as a “backyard… Read More →
There was a flurry of activity this week related to reform proposals for federally subsidized crop insurance. Following the Land Stewardship Project’s November/December release of our three white papers on crop insurance (“How a Safety Net Became a Farm Policy Disaster”), 2015 has seen continued attention to the need for major reform of this largest… Read More →
We have learned that quality produce on our eight-acre vegetable farm starts with the soil—soil that teems with life at both the macro- and micro-level. First, some background: I had grown up on a conventional hay, corn and soybean farm in western Iowa and moved to Rochester, Minn., for work after getting a mechanical engineering… Read More →
It’s that age-old struggle: accepting a little short-term disturbance in the name of long-term stability. Dave Trauba regularly faces the challenge of explaining that tradeoff to hunters who visit the Lac Qui Parle Wildlife Refuge in western Minnesota only to find their favorite spot for shooting pheasants has recently been grazed by cattle from a… Read More →
The threat of heavy rain did not keep a group of prospective farmers away from the Seward Neighborhood of Minneapolis this past Saturday. Stefan Meyer of Growing Lots Urban Farm hosted a Farm Beginning field day at one of Growing Lots’ urban locations, where he shared his experience with vegetable varieties, irrigation, compost, soil health… Read More →
Early this morning, the Minnesota Legislature took a major step toward supporting the kind of agriculture that can green up our landscape in a way that’s economically viable for farmers. Conference committee negotiations produced $1 million for Forever Green, an innovative University of Minnesota research initiative involving cover crops and perennial plant systems. Funding for… Read More →
In western Minnesota we live in what used to be a grassland habitat, where warm season perennials were king and the whole system depended on herds of buffalo and the occasional wildfire to break down the abundance of plant material. These days, it’s becoming clear leaving our remaining prairies untouched does not create a healthy… Read More →
