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A Farm Makes Changes to Benefit Soil, Profit & Quality of Life

Dry Creek Farms has been farming certified organic crops since 2001 and presently consists of me and my wife Terri, along with our son Jared, who recently returned to the farm after attending college. We have registered Red Angus cattle and recently Jared has added Polled Herefords as well. The cattle are raised on an…  Read More

Stages of Learning in Farming: Stage 3–Becoming the Expert

By season 10 or before, you may be able to quit your day job if that is your goal. You have developed a playbook for your farm. Many farm families have off-farm income and that is okay. If you want to farm full time you will need a plan to do so. How much income…  Read More

Legislative Session Heads into its Final Days

Wide Gap Between House & Senate Budget Proposals for Soil Health, Processing Support, Drought Relief

There are less than 20 days left in the 2022 session of the Minnesota Legislature, and with a $9.3 billion surplus, legislators have an historic opportunity to invest in our communities. Throughout the session, Land Stewardship Project members have been advocating for funding to increase access to local meat processing facilities and for helping farmers implement…  Read More

Ear to the Ground 296: Stability is Sexy

Rick Clark’s no-till organic system is all about treating cover crops like cash crops — because they are. More Information • Rick Clark’s Farm Green website • LSP’s Soil Health web page • LSP Ear Dirt soil health podcast series You can find LSP Ear to the Ground podcast episodes on Spotify, Stitcher, iTunes, and…  Read More

Carbon, Cattle & Conservation Grazing

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

2020 Legislative Session: What Happened & What’s Next

The past few months have been harder than ever for thousands of Minnesotans. Our communities were already facing a serious farm crisis, inaccessible and unaffordable healthcare, increasing impacts of climate change, corporate consolidation across our economy, and more. On top of that, a pandemic has wreaked havoc on our healthcare system, farm and food system,…  Read More

Farm Beginnings Profile: An Enigmatic Edge in Corn Country

This Gateway into Farming Hinges on Small Grains, Livestock & Soil Health With its pool table topography and coffee-colored soils, southern Minnesota’s Nicollet County perennially ranks as one of the top producers of corn and soybeans in the state, and land prices reflect it — in 2019 the average annual non-irrigated cropland rental rate in…  Read More

Farm Transitions: That Farm on Highway 40

A Pioneering Organic Operation, a Trial Run, & the Next Generation Black, ominous clouds were approaching fast, and Luke Peterson was in a bit of a panic as he stood next to his tractor parked in an 80-acre soybean field, scanning the sky. Hooked up to that tractor was a rotary hoe, and before this…  Read More

No. 1, 2023, Land Stewardship Letter

• An online version of the Land Stewardship Letter is here. • A downloadable pdf version is here. • Archived pdf versions of the Land Stewardship Letter are here. • Archived online versions of the Land Stewardship Letter are here. • Paper copies are available by contacting Brian DeVore at 612-816-9342 or via e-mail. Table of Contents Stewardship Roots…3 •…  Read More

Connecting with Farmers in SE MN at a Critical Time for our Soil

“Upon this handful of soil our survival depends. Husband it and it will grow our food, our fuel, our shelter, and surround us with beauty. Abuse it and the soil will collapse and die, taking humanity with it.” This quote was taken from the Vedas Sanskrit Scriptures, which date back to 1500 BC. For a…  Read More