Note: This is the 8th installment in the 12-part “A Sense of Where You Are” series. So, here’s a chicken or egg situation to ponder: when launching a farming operation, when should you approach the local NRCS office about applying for funding to set up infrastructure such as a high tunnel or a rotational grazing system?… Read More →
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 →
Father-son team Joe and Matthew Fitzgerald are quite willing to share their insights with other farmers on how to get started in organic crop production. First piece of advice: sell your fishing boat. More Information • Fitzgerald Organic Mad Agriculture Video • Organic Agronomy Training Service • LSP Soil Health Web Page You can find LSP… Read More →
Owl Bluff Farm is tucked away in one of those Driftless Area coulees where cellular signals go to die. In fact, when contractors were constructing a building there recently, they sometimes climbed half-way up an abandoned silo on the farm to use their phones. It has a sense of being an isolated, if beautiful, little… Read More →
CALEDONIA, Minn. — A workshop entitled, “From Entomology to Economics: Building Soil Health with Jonathan Lundgren,” will be offered by the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) on Thursday, March 5, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at St. John’s Lutheran Church (650 N. Kingston St.) in Caledonia. It will feature presentations by Dr. Lundgren and a… Read More →
CALEDONIA, Minn.—Cover crops, companion crops and the use of the roller-crimper will be the focus of a Land Stewardship Project soil health field day on Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 3, from 10 a.m. until 12:15 p.m. Registration starts at 9:45 a.m. on Mark Klinski’s farm (9379 Sanden Rd.) with a car caravan departing at 11… Read More →
It’s been clear for some time that the biofuels industry needs to wean itself off of the corn ethanol spigot. Numerous studies show that utilizing the kernels of corn to distill fuel are playing havoc with food and feed prices, while contributing to a devastating plow-up of grassland, hayland, wetlands and just about any perennial… Read More →
During a recent Land Stewardship Letter roundtable discussion about Forever Green (see “Forever Green: Relaying Resiliency” blog), eight University of Minnesota graduate students working on the initiative responded to the question, “What excites you most about this research?” New Tools Have Compressed Time • Kevin Dorn has been mapping the genome for pennycress, which holds… Read More →
Sometimes it takes a bit of an evangelist to remind us that praying at the altar of facts and figures can blind one to how they all connect in the bigger picture. In the case of production systems that build soil health, that preacher is Ray Archuleta. “The soil is naked, hungry, thirsty and running… Read More →
David is seeking a farmer for 50 tillable, pasture and forest acres in East Troy, WI, Walworth County. There is housing as well as enclosed sheds, an open sided shed, greenhouses, and a garage. Available 1/1/26
