As a Nature Conservancy scientist based in a Midwestern state, Steve Chaplin thinks a lot about the impact agriculture has on ecological treasures such as native tallgrass prairie. “Other than plowing, grazing has probably been responsible for the degradation of more prairie than any other source,” says Chaplin, who is in the Conservancy’s Minnesota field… Read More →
Amy Haben and Tom Moore ride a golf cart over a rickety wooden bridge spanning Otter Creek and follow a path to a lush pasture where a couple dozen head of Scottish Highland cattle graze, their shaggy coats luminescent in the late afternoon sun of a June day. “Before they grazed the edge of the… 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 →
Dec. 18: An LSP Round-up of News Covering Land, People & Communities National Soil Erosion Rates on Track to Repeat Dust Bowl-era Losses Eight Times Over (12/16/20) Unhealthy farming practices and more extreme weather spurred by climate change will lead to an increased rate of soil erosion across the U.S. in the coming decades, according… Read More →
‘Farming in the dark’: Brooke Rollins’ Leadership, DOGE’s Grip and the Cost to American Agriculture (7/22/25) According to Investigate Midwest, during her first six months in office U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has brought sweeping changes to USDA and largely embraced President Donald Trump’s agenda of downsizing the federal government. Mass firings have purged… Read More →
Minnesota Sands Announces Intentions to Target Fillmore & Winona Counties for More Mining The Minnesota Environmental Quality Board (EQB) made the right decision May 21 by tabling the issue of taking a Houston County mine out of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) ordered on the multi-site Minnesota Sands, LLC, frac sand mining project. Thus, the… Read More →
Ashly Steinke remembers well the first time he saw a bobolink on pastured land that formerly grew corn and soybeans — it was a sign that he was successfully blending beef, birds, and biology. More Information • LSP’s Grazing & Soil Health Web Page • Audubon Conservation Ranching Program • The Monitoring Project’s “Tool Box”… Read More →
Bovines, bugs, and birds are all making noise in Kevin Mahalko’s dairy grazing paddocks, and that’s music to his ears. More Information • LSP’s Grazing & Soil Health Web Page • NODPA Article on Kevin Mahalko • Ear to the Ground 391: Grounded in Grazing • Ear to the Ground 371: Avian Award • Ear… Read More →
Public Policy Solutions to be Discussed GREENWALD, Minn. — How can we work together to create a solution to the current crisis that is engulfing dairy farming in central Minnesota and beyond? That will be the focus of a special Land Stewardship Project (LSP) meeting Thursday, Jan. 30, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., at… Read More →
Sometimes the rules of simple cause and effect don’t directly apply. Take, for instance, the fact that cattle are ruminants, and like all ruminants they utilize a wonderfully complex digestive system to turn forages and grain into meat and milk. A major side effect of all that fermentation on four legs is the production of… Read More →
