August 8 Café Chat to explore no-till and cover crops

Could implementing practices like cover crops and no-till on your farm work for you and your bottom line? What if you could get paid to do it? Enjoy a meal and conversation with area farmers and your Soil Water Conservation District this Thursday, August 8 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Duffy’s Riverside Saloon…

Read More

Annual Conference registration open

Come one, come all! Registration for the 2024 Annual Conference is open. We can’t wait to reconvene with hundreds of you farmers, ag professionals, aspiring growers, homesteaders, and local foods supporters. Join us at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph on Saturday, February 10, 2024. Members can take advantage of a $25 Early Bird discount. Register…

Read More

Midwest Soil Health Summit 2024 Early Bird registration open

Early Birds get the deal! We’ve got some big news… Early Bird registration for the next Midwest Soil Health Summit is open!  Our biggest soil health event of the year will be held at the Courtyard Marriott in Mankato on March 13 & 14, 2024. We’re excited to really dig into our theme: “Managing for Profit with the Soil Health…

Read More

Dirt Rich: Grazing Management, Drought, & the NRCS

Jeff Duchene is a Grazing Specialist for the Minnesota NRCS, which offers both financial and technical assistance to producers to help them meet their land management goals and address their natural resource concerns. In conversation with host Jonathan Kilpatrick, Duchene shares how his formal education combined with years of learning directly from producers has been…

Read More

New Case Studies Tell Hopeful Stories

A brand new volume of farm case studies are hot off the press. This time, the case studies highlight farms and their soil health practices who are certified through the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program (MAWQCP).  Angie Walter, the MAWQCP Outreach Coordinator with SFA, began working on this project in 2021 thanks to a boots-on-the-ground…

Read More

Insurance and liability considerations for agritourism

By Jerry Ford • SFA Network Coordinator This article was originally written for the University of Minnesota Extension’s Fruit and Vegetable News blog. Insurance is very important for all farming operations, but is especially important for agritourism operations that host visitors on this farm. This article details important topics related to insurance for agritourism farms.…

Read More

Meet the Emerging Farmers Office

By Katie Feterl • Communications Director In 2022, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) opened the state’s first Emerging Farmers Office. On today’s episode of Dirt Rich, Lillian Otieno and Assistant Commissioner Patrice Bailey of the MDA Commissioner’s Office share how it came to be, the value it brings to our agricultural landscape, and the impacts…

Read More

Scenes from the Summit

It was a nearly full house for our 10th Annual Midwest Soil Health Summit, held last week in Alexandria. Although snow showers threatened us on-and-off over the two-day period, inside we were cozy, dialed in to rich presentations, and swapping stories. Under the theme “Pioneering the Future: The Soil Health Mavericks,” we brought in a…

Read More

Happy Hour Events: Sharing Funding Opportunities & Programs

The Sustainable Farming Association has teamed with Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation to bring emerging and established sustainable farmers a variety of opportunities for funding and programs that are available. You won’t want to miss these insightful events! See included flyers for specific event details and locations in March. Join us at EJ’s Bar on Wednesday, March 22 from 4:30-6…

Read More