Thanks to the recently passed 2014 Farm Bill, federally subsidized crop insurance is an even bigger player in determining what the landscape looks like. That’s troubling, considering that in recent years that impact has been mostly negative, since the program removes most of the risk associated with plowing up acres formerly considered too erosive, wet… Read More →
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 →
The Land Stewardship Project, sustainable agriculture and family farming lost a true friend this week when Dan Specht was killed in a tragic farm accident. He was 63. (See obituary here.) Dan, who farmed above the banks of the Mississippi River near McGregor, in northeast Iowa, had been a pioneer in innovative, sustainable farming methods… Read More →
The U.S. Senate passed its version of a Farm Bill yesterday by a vote of 66-27. Both Minnesota Senators Al Franken (D-MN) and Amy Klobuchar( D-MN) voted for passage of the bill. The upshot is that for the first time ever the Senate bill limits the degree of crop insurance subsidies wealthy farm investors and… Read More →
While walking through a knee-high prairie planted on a central Iowa hillside Tuesday, I happened to look down. Trapped amongst all that vegetation was an impressive amount of rich, black glacial soil, the kind that produces record crop yields. And just a few feet away was the source of that soil: a soybean field planted… Read More →
How changes to Minnesota’s Green Acres program threaten farmland stewardship.
Farming, we love this life. No matter what type of farmer you are, we all know how tough it can be to live the farming life. From unpredictable weather, markets we have no control over, input cost increases, equipment breaking down, exhaustion, and now tariffs — the U.S. agriculture system is entering a crisis not… Read More →
Some sins against the land can be masked over with deep tillage, chemical inputs, and, when all else fails, moving dirt around with heavy equipment. But you can’t fool a good soil probe. For Mike and Jennifer Rupprecht, that revelation came when a retired soil scientist sunk his equipment deep into a couple spots on… Read More →
On an overcast morning in June, more than a dozen livestock producers gathered in the on-farm cabinetmaking shop of Leslea and Brad Hodgson, situated in the scenic hills near southeastern Minnesota’s Root River. Soon after taking seats on folding chairs arranged in a wide circle, the farmers answered an opening question: “Why am I here?”… Read More →
Hannah (she/her) is the owner/operator of Medicine Creek Farm in NE Minnesota where she raises grass fed beef and lamb and pastured pork for direct market online. She also educates about regenerative agriculture through agritourism on the farm and public speaking. She grew up on a corn and soybean farm in southern Minnesota and returned to agriculture… Read More →
