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Searched for: transition course

Lawns vs. Food

What’s up with all the backlash against urban food production? Google the phrase “urban farming illegal” and you’ll see what I mean. Communities in Minnesota and across North America are struggling with what to do when some energetic entrepreneurs begin raising produce in their yards on a scale that goes beyond planting a few tomatoes…  Read More

Land Line: Grazing Legislation, Diversification Barriers, Nitrate Cancer Review, Riverview Lawsuit, Devil’s Element, Local Meat Processing, Returning to the Farm

Sign Up for E-mail Delivery of The Land Line RANCH Act Introduced to Help Rebuild Cattle Herd (8/21/26) Beef Magazine reports that two U.S. Senators have introduced a bipartisan bill that has the goal of boosting the grazing of beef cattle on perennial grasses and forbs. Highlights:  The “Rebuilding America’s National Cow Herd (RANCH) Act,”…  Read More

Seeking Farmland to Rent or Buy: Minnesota

Brit is seeking 50 acres (pasture, forest, other) in Minnesota.  Brit’s multigenerational family is preparing to relocate from Virginia to rural Minnesota this fall and is looking for 50+ acres to homestead and develop into a small very rustic spiritual retreat and homeschool co-op gathering place. They are looking for mostly wooded, usable acreage with…  Read More

Rocket Surgery, Farming & Water

A Lobe Rangers Field Day Highlights Why We Need to 'Rethink Nitrogen'

On a muggy, overcast July day in northwestern Iowa, Matt Bormann and Zack Smith were standing in front of a sophisticated piece of conservation tillage equipment that farmers like themselves use to keep soil in place while planting corn and soybeans. A few yards away, another farmer, James Hepp, was standing in front of a…  Read More

Legislative Wrap-up: Lack of Ag Bill Passage Represents Lost Opportunities 

Some Gains Made for Clean Water/Soil Health & Beginning Farmers

It’s been said that politics is the art of the compromise. But during the 2026 session of the Minnesota Legislature, that approach to policymaking was undermined by disagreements about the role one particular herbicide should play in the state’s agricultural production system. As the session of the Minnesota Legislature entered its final month, it was…  Read More

Water, White Torpedoes & The Lobe Ranger Way

For these 3 Farmers, Resisting Peer Pressure Doesn't Mean Ignoring the Power of Community

CUMBERLAND, Iowa — Here in southwestern Iowa, it’s the season of the white torpedo. Once it seemed spring wasn’t fake news, pickup trucks began towing to winter-dormant fields tubular tanks of gaseous anhydrous ammonia fertilizer here and in the rest of the Corn Belt. These white cylinders are the harbingers of a new planting season…  Read More

Nitrate’s Day at the Capitol

Special Oversight Hearing Highlights a Key Question: Who Pays for Pollution?

How critical is nitrogen to raising corn in the Midwest? Well, consider the fact that farmers feel compelled to pay for it, even at a time when the war with Iran is sending prices to dizzying heights during the 2026 planting season. The agronomic value of nitrogen became clear during a special oversight hearing held…  Read More

Area Farmers Share Land Access & Marketing Concerns with Legislators From 9 States

Pre Farm-Aid SIX Tour Highlights Environmental, Health Benefits Provided by Cannon Falls & Rochester Farmers 

CANNON FALLS, Minn. — Shea-Lynn Ramthun stood in a recently harvested oat field on her family’s farm near Cannon Falls last week and described to a couple dozen lawmakers a dilemma that’s all-too-common in the agriculture business: she had just successfully raised a bumper crop, only to run into the brick wall of not having…  Read More

Land Line: Monopolies, Crop Rut, MISA, Soil Microbes, Corn Production Costs, Nitrates, Kernza

Outraged Farmers Blame Ag Monopolies as Catastrophic Collapse Looms (9/9/25) Farm Journal describes a tumultuous meeting in Brookland, Ark., where 400-plus farmers met with field representatives from the offices of U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, U.S. Sen. John Boozman, and U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, along with a representative sent by Gov. Sarah Sanders. The farmers raised…  Read More

Land Line: USDA Changes, Climate-Smart Ag, Dead Zone, Nitrate Pollution, Feedlot Regs, Soil Bacteria, the Power of Diverse Farming

‘Farming in the dark’: Brooke Rollins’ Leadership, DOGE’s Grip and the Cost to American Agriculture (7/22/25) According to Investigate Midwest, during her first six months in office U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins  has brought sweeping changes to USDA and largely embraced President Donald Trump’s agenda of downsizing the federal government. Mass firings have purged…  Read More