LSP’s Soil Health Steering Committee got together in September 2024 to discuss ways of helping farmers in the region successfully adopt cover cropping, managed rotational grazing, no-till, and other regenerative practices. Discussions focused on developing a more viable small grains marketing infrastructure, supporting livestock integration into cropping operations, strengthening the Soil Builders’ Network, and making deeper investments in our localized peer learning groups such as soil hubs and grazing groups. For bios of Soil Health Steering Committee members, click here.

Are you farming in southeastern Minnesota and need help getting started in your soil health journey? LSP has put together a directory of technical assistance providers in southeastern Minnesota that can provide funding for cover crop establishment, as well as equipment rentals, testing services, and more. Check it out here.

Check out our LSP’s web calendar for the latest field Days, workshops  and pasture walks.

Check out LSP’s new series of videos featuring farmers who are utilizing various methods to build soil health profitably.

Check out LSP’s ongoing Ear Dirt podcast series for conversations on cover cropping, no-till, managed rotational grazing, fungi, and just about anything else that builds soil health.

Through the publication, Bridge to Soil Health Program’s Peer-to-Peer Learning Groups: The Strategy & Construction of Regional Farmer Soil Hubs, LSP is sharing our experience constructing and implementing the Regional Soil Hubs through our Bridge to Soil Health initiative. We hope that other agricultural groups, including farmer-led groups, might want to borrow or adapt some of the approaches we’ve used.

If you have an idea you’d like to have featured in a video, blog, podcast, or field day, contact us.

LSP’s Soil Health, Water & Climate Change: A Pocket Guide to What You Need to Know, is available as a pdf document or as a mobile-friendly app.

In October 2020, a special LSP report was published: “Building the Bridge to Soil Health: The Power of Organizing Farmer-to-Farmer Engagement.” It describes the organization’s experience with launching the Bridge to Soil Health initiative. The report is available here.

• Podcast: How farmers involved in an LSP research project hope to use the Johnson-Su Bioreactor composting system to spark a chain reaction of underground ecological activity. 
• Podcast: Martin Larsen’s integration of small grains into his cropping operation is centered on building economic and ecological resiliency beyond the next growing season.
• Podcast: Tillage can do a lot of things, but building soil isn’t one of them. Soil expert Steve Lawler and Minnesota farmer Jon Jovaag talk about the importance of using nature as a guide when preparing a seed bed and bolstering the soil’s structure. (9/13/21)
•  Podcast: Soil health cheerleader Ray Archuleta and Iowa farmer Mervin Beachy talk about taking agroecological innovations from the “excitement stage” to the “action stage”…and the importance of aha moments. (9/5/21)
• Podcast: What happened when beginning farmers Rachelle and Jordan Meyer started listening to the land and turned livestock loose on a “bacterial farm.” (9/1/21)
• Blog: Jeepers Cats That’s Some Healthy Soil! (8/26/21)
• Blog: Red Rooster Ranch: Spreading the Cover Crop Message (11/6/20)
• Podcast: How farmers Dawn & Grant Breitkreutz are building soil carbon & bolstering profitability. (2/20/20)