For soil health practices to be truly sustainable, they must be economically viable, environmentally beneficial, and socially supported. As the first blog in this series illustrates, the Land Stewardship Project’s Soil Health Hubs sit at the intersection of these three “legs of the stool.” “Economic” and “environmental” viability may seem like no-brainers, but why is… Read More →
Growing Small Grains Market in Albert Lea Attracting Attention from Farmers (1/28/25) KAAL-TV reports on a Land Stewardship Project workshop where over 150 people gathered to talk about ways of bringing small grains back to Minnesota. Highlights: After being mostly replaced by corn and soybeans during the past several decades, small grains such as oats… Read More →
POSTPONEMENT NOTE: Due to extreme weather halting travel for our presenter, Allen Williams, we must postpone the Feb. 24 event in Ridgeway, Iowa. If you’ve already registered, your ticket purchase for the postponed event will be reimbursed. In the meantime, we will provide this vital and timely information through a podcast interview LSP’s Brian DeVore… Read More →
LEWISTON, Minn. — Are you looking to improve profitability from rotationally grazing livestock by marketing your grass-fed and pastured-based meats directly to the consumer? A workshop featuring local farmers sharing their experiences with direct marketing grass-fed meats will be held Thursday, Dec. 12, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at the Church of the Brethren… Read More →
ORTONVILLE, Minn. — Are you a prairie enthusiast ready to share your knowledge and passion with others? Looking for a fun family day that also supports public lands? Want an opportunity to discover a new dragonfly species in western Minnesota? Interested in learning about the connection between conservation grazing and healthy ecosystems? Join naturalists, farmers,… Read More →
The telephone rang late one afternoon in early October. It was a call from a jubilant, if exhausted, dairy farmer who said he’d planted 20 acres of rye the previous night. He said he’d been attending Land Stewardship Project cover crop/soil health events and that despite the pitfalls of harvest, machinery and too much rain,… Read More →
Water, as Land Stewardship Project board member Vince Ready says, is vital for life. When Governor Mark Dayton’s Water Summit takes place on Feb. 27, it’s likely a lot of innovative proposals for solving Minnesota’s water quality crisis will be discussed. That’s good, because this Summit is centered around one of the most basic questions… Read More →
Stage two typically lasts an additional three to five seasons. You are on your way to a successful farming enterprise. You have a firm direction, you are focused and you have, by trial and error, refined your course (see previous blogs here, and here). You are still doing much fine tuning and investing. If you… Read More →
Every budding farm enterprise goes through that certain stage at least once—the one where setbacks outnumber successes, careful planning gets bushwhacked by forces beyond one’s control and the learning curve can resemble a roller coaster headed in one direction: up. It’s at that period in an enterprise’s life that minimal risk is a farm’s best… Read More →
On a crisp morning in September, North Dakota farmer Gabe Brown held two handfuls of soil and searched for signs of life—theoretically not a difficult task considering one teaspoon of humus contains more organisms than there are humans in the world. But many of the bacteria and invertebrates that lurk in the dark basement of… Read More →
