As last week’s Congressional Research Service report on bee health makes clear, the crisis plaguing pollinators is not a single, big bad bogey man. It’s likely a combination of factors such as habitat loss, pesticide poisoning, introduced diseases and the stress of making domesticated honey bees the insect equivalent of migrant workers. That’s the bad… Read More →
Note: This is the 4th installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series. Jerry and Nancy Ackermann’s context is this: for around four decades, they have been raising corn and soybeans in southwestern Minnesota’s Jackson County, a region dominated by the kind of flat, fertile fields that regularly churn out impressive yields… 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 →
Note: This is the 10th installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series. There’s nothing like getting diminishing returns on your investment in time, labor, and resources to put things in context. “I just got sick and tired of spending money on fertilizer, planting in the dry powder, and watching the soil blow… Read More →
Note: This is the 11th installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series. Be careful who you invite onto the farm, especially if it’s a return visit. Jon and Carin Stevens learned that lesson in late August when a nationally known soil health expert walked their fields and grubbed up some samples… Read More →
A cornerstone of creating a regenerative agricultural system in the Upper Midwest is reintegrating livestock onto the land in a way that farmers can add value to forages and grains while cycling nutrients in a manner that manure becomes a way to build soil biology, rather than a waste product to be disposed of. Over… Read More →
There’s a connection between the biome beneath our feet and the bounty on our table. Allen Williams thinks research linking soil health and nutrient density of food holds huge potential for advancing regenerative agriculture. 4th of 4 episodes in a series: Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 More Information: Allen Williams will be presenting on two southeastern Minnesota farms… Read More →
Allen Williams describes how regenerative practices are working on four farming operations representing widely divergent geographical locations and enterprises. 3rd of 4 episodes in a series: Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 4 More Information: Allen Williams will be presenting on two southeastern Minnesota farms Aug. 17-18, 2022. For details and to register, click here. LSP’s Soil Health… Read More →
Allen Williams asks, “What is a weed?” and lays out the three rules of adaptive stewardship. 2nd of 4 episodes in a series: Episode 1 Episode 3 Episode 4 More Information: Allen Williams will be presenting on two southeastern Minnesota farms Aug. 17-18, 2022. For details and to register, click here. LSP’s Soil Health Web Page Understanding Ag… Read More →
Allen Williams believes that farming in nature’s image isn’t just a nice idea, it’s an agricultural/ecological imperative. 1st of 4 episodes in a series: Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 More Information: Allen Williams will be presenting on two southeastern Minnesota farms Aug. 17-18, 2022. For details and to register, click here. LSP’s Soil Health Web Page Understanding Ag… Read More →
