On a recent morning in late February, a couple dozen farmers stood in front of a wall of words and pictures, imagining what the future might look like. Just a few minutes before, the farmers had sat at tables in a sunny room of the Chatfield Center for the Arts in southeastern Minnesota, using felt-tipped… Read More →
HARMONY, Minn. — A special “Farming in Karst Country” field day will highlight the intersection of soil-building farming practices, water movement, and karst geology on Thursday, July 18, from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., at Niagara Cave near Harmony (29842 Co. Hwy. 30). During this Land Stewardship Project (LSP) event, farmers and geologists will share… 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 →
Bridge Payment Rates Are Here — But Are They Enough to Help Your Bottom Line? (1/7/26) Writing for Farm Progress, Joshua Baethge describes concerns that the aid package being issued to farmers in February to help them deal with damage caused by the trade war will not make up for years of mounting losses in… Read More →
LA CRESCENT, Minn. — Spring pasture productivity, plant identification and improvements to herd health will be the focus of a special grazing field day Saturday, May 4, at Enchanted Meadows Organic Farm near La Crescent (32979 Pier Ridge Rd.) This Land Stewardship Project (LSP) field day will be held from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.,… Read More →
It’s been said that soil without biology is just geology—an accumulation of lifeless minerals unable to spawn healthy plant growth. And as intense monocropping production practices increasingly remove more life from the ground than they return, it sends that soil closer to fossilization via what conservationist Barry Fisher calls, “the spiral of degradation”: eroded, compacted… Read More →
When it comes to farming, oftentimes things don’t work out as planned—and sometimes that’s a good thing. Take for example Greg and Nancy Rasmussen, who on a recent fall afternoon are checking on some newly arrived chicks gathered under heat lamps in their barn. When the Rasmussens enrolled in the Land Stewardship Project’s Farm Beginnings course… Read More →
2025-2026 Farm Beginnings Class LSP is now accepting applications for its 2025-2026 Farm Beginnings class session. For details, click here. ♦ ♦ ♦ This is a story about how traffic jams aren’t all bad, the powerful draw of regenerative agriculture, an MBA project, and how one woman living in the suburbs got over imposter’s syndrome,… Read More →
Note: This is the 5th installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series. Grazing livestock have been described as “combines that poop.” That’s an accurate, if somewhat graphic, depiction of how moving cattle and other animals through well-managed paddocks can rebuild soil that’s been decimated by tillage, chemical use, and compaction. Langdon… Read More →
RIDGEWAY, Iowa — The Land Stewardship Project (LSP), along with the Winneshiek Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), will host a workshop called, “Cover Crops, No-Till & Grazing: Evaluating the Economics and First Steps to Improving Soil Health” on Thursday, Jan. 30, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Ridgeway Community Center. It will… Read More →
