Archive for May 2023
SFA Welcomes Derek Schmitz
We are excited to have dairy grazier Derek Schmitz join us as our Minnesota Dairy Initiative (MDI) coordinator! Derek farms near Cold Spring with his wife Taylor and two (soon to be three) children. They milk 70 grass-based dairy cows, raise hair sheep, custom graze, and direct market beef. You may have been to their…
Read MoreMay is Mental Health Awareness Month: How are you doing?
By Lucinda Winter • Executive Director Now that it’s finally safe to stop layering before heading outside, I’m hearing from both SFA staff and members that they are hitting it hard to make up for lost time this spring. May is such a busy time for farmers, especially so this year, and that can be…
Read MoreBeyond Your Backyard: Bison bison, an ode to a modern day mammoth
By Megan Benage I promised a three-part series and a three part-series ode to nature is what I intend to stand by. This series features raps about things in nature I find exciting, awe-inspiring, and frankly, worth rapping about. Part 2 could only highlight one of nature’s largest land mammals, the bison. (If you missed…
Read MoreBeyond Your Backyard: Rhizome Rap
By Megan Benage A while back I was trying to think of fun and engaging ways to get people excited about nature. I remembered when I was working as a naturalist on Cape Cod how we sometimes asked the students to voice their appreciation through song or short plays. And that got me thinking. If…
Read MoreA Living Room for Soil Biology? Part II
By Jonathan Kilpatrick, Soil Health Specialist Read Part I of this series here. So, what does the root system of a living plant accomplish for us? In short, the root system of a plant is a phenomenal communications, sales and marketing, shipping and handling service all wrapped into one full-service entity. Not many corporations can…
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