Finance
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 MoreNew 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 MoreInsurance 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 MoreMeet 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 MoreScenes 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 MoreHappy 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$1k for ‘Climate Smart’ Farms
How does an extra $1,000 sound to you? How could that help your farm? What would you spend the $1,000 on? Maybe a new piece of equipment for your farming operation? Maybe a vacation to escape the long MN winter? You can spend it on anything that you want! How do you get this extra…
Read MoreDig Deep at the Midwest Soil Health Summit
Our flagship soil health event in the region, the Midwest Soil Health Summit, is celebrating its 10th year of networking, sharing, and education on all things soil health and regenerative agriculture! This year we are bringing internationally acclaimed soil microbiologist Dr. Elaine Ingham, who nearly four decades ago discovered the soil food web, and has pioneered research and…
Read MoreTune in to the Latest Dirt Rich Podcast Episodes
For me, winter is podcast season. It’s when I sit down and really listen and think critically about what other farms are doing, why it works for them (or doesn’t), and if it could fit into my own farm. Podcasts have been a really important part of the development of our farm and have contributed…
Read MoreLuhman: Overhead
I’ve written several columns talking about different ways to increase profitability in a grazing enterprise. Many have been focused on changing enterprises or working on adding value to the product you sell. You can check those out in my article archive here. Today I want to talk about overhead and how we can reduce that…
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