Posts by SFA of MN
From the Executive Director: Soil Health Can Fix Modern Agriculture
Editor’s Note: This column appeared July 7, 2017, in the Mankato Free Press under the headline, “My View: Farming can be sustainable and profitable.” Scott Haase works on his family farm in Faribault County, where most farmers grow corn and soybeans using methods they’ve been encouraged to use for decades. It’s become conventional wisdom: government…
Read MoreFrom the Farm Transitions Network: Dividing Up the Assets Based on Contributions To the Farm
By Teresa Opheim • Senior Fellow, Renewing the Countryside If you own farmland and have both farming and non-farming heirs, which of the following goals comes first: 1. treating all your heirs financially equally; or 2. allowing your farming heir to continue farming? Given land prices and other factors, you may not be able to…
Read MoreDon’t Have a Farming Heir? Check Out These Resources
By Teresa Opheim • Executive Director, Climate Land Leaders There is no better way to keep rural communities vibrant than to provide land for a family to farm. At the same time, there is a surge of those wanting to farm, in SFA and elsewhere. If you don’t have a farming heir but want to…
Read MoreFrom the Farm Transitions Network: Don’t Have a Farming Heir?
By Teresa Opheim • Executive Director, Climate Land Leaders There is no better way to keep rural communities vibrant than to provide land for a family to farm. At the same time, there is a surge of those wanting to farm, in the Sustainable Farming Association and elsewhere. If you don’t have a farming heir…
Read MoreSolberg on Soil: New Cropland Grazing Exchange Website Links Producers to Build Soil Health
By Kent Solberg • SFA Livestock & Grazing Specialist One of the five tenets of soil health is incorporation of livestock, and recent data underlines the value of managed livestock integration into cropping systems. After hearing multiple requests from both livestock and crop producers interested in a method of connecting with other producers to incorporate…
Read MoreSolberg on Soil: Barn Raising for Pastured Poultry
SFA members and friends Lori Benson and Jim and Audra Chamberlin came together under the initiative of Mat Nix to help Linda and I remodel our winter chicken coop on Oct. 22. Pastured poultry have a number of benefits for pasture-based livestock operations (if you can manage the predators). A few benefits of poultry include…
Read MoreA View From the Field: ‘Everything Is Probably Going To Be All Right’
By Kasandra Brown Editor’s Note: Kasandra Brown attended SFA’s “Dirt Rich: Building Soil Health Experts” events held Aug. 16-17 in Redwood Falls and Marshall, Minn. She submitted this column in reaction to her experiences at those SFA events. Standing on the sweltering edge of a nearly full grown corn field, sweat bees relentlessly buzzing against…
Read MoreCover Crops a Tool With Huge Potential – When Used Properly
By Kent Solberg • SFA Livestock & Grazing Specialist It’s encouraging that the Star Tribune, Minnesota’s largest news outlet, is plastering cover crops across the front page of the business section like in this recent article. Cover crops are a tremendous tool to move agriculture toward healthy soils. However, cover crops are simply that –…
Read MoreFarm Skills 101 Diary: Birth, Butchering, and Bearings
By Cassi Dutcher • Farm Skills 101 Student The third and final weekend of Farm Skills 101 was abundant with varied activities. At Seven Pines Farm in Verndale, Minn., we spent a significant amount of time handling dairy cattle. We learned how to put cattle in a head gate, assess health, administer medication and put…
Read MoreFarm Skills 101 Diary: Fencing as Practical Art Form
By Cassi Dutcher • Farm Skills 101 Student We did so much fencing in Farm Skills 101 Week Two that for two nights I dreamed of nothing but fencing and high-tensile wire. When creating systems for forage based livestock, appropriate fencing is critical. For the vast majority of the history of agriculture, ruminants were not…
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