Grazing
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 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 MoreA Living Room for Soil Biology? Part I
By Jonathan Kilpatrick, Soil Health Specialist Recently, while doing some writing, I was using a voice-to-text application to speed up my work. As I was going back through what I had said, checking for errors and cleaning up the little things that these dictation tools tend to miss, I came across a sentence where I…
Read MoreFree Livestock Producers Workshop
The Lake of the Woods SWCD is hosting a free Livestock Producer Workshop on Wednesday, March 29th from 12:30 to 4:30 PM at the VFW in Baudette, Minn. Speakers include Dr. Mouser, a veterinarian who will be presenting on “Preparing for Calving Season.” Eric Mousel, a University of MN Extension educator from Grand Rapids will present on scours.…
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 MoreDirt Rich: Grazing Tech – Paddock Track
On the latest episode of Dirt Rich, Organic dairy grazier Angie Walter shares her experience using PaddockTrac, a grazing tool being developed by the University of Missouri. Angie’s family runs a 100-cow organic dairy in Villard, Minn., grazing 80-100 acres at any given time. Theirs and 12 other Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship farms are piloting the PaddockTrac…
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 MoreMeet the Speaker: Gene Goven
Gene Goven will kick off the Midwest Soil Health Summit on March 8th with a presentation and discussion on “Managing Diversity for Soil Health Enhancement.” Gene is farmer and rancher in North Dakota who has implemented the soil health principles on his ranch. He will share how he uses livestock as a tool to improve…
Read MoreSlate of Experts to Convene at 2023 Midwest Soil Health Summit
Dave Brandt, Gene Goven, Dr. Elaine Ingham, and local experts including Anna Cates, PhD and our own Kent Solberg are among the presenters at the 2023 Midwest Soil Health Summit: Pioneering the Future: The Soil Health Mavericks. SFA’s premier soil health event will be held at the Holiday Inn in Alexandria, Minnesota on March 8 and…
Read MoreSeason 3 Comes to a Close
Somehow we’ve already reached the end of our third season of Dirt Rich. This month we released two episodes with our staff, finishing out the year with some food for thought as folks plan for the next growing season. In Episode 61: What’s on your mind?, Jared Luhman, Doug Voss, Kent Solberg, and Jonathan Kilpatrick…
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