Soil Health
Luhman: The Benefits of an August Breeding Season
For us at Dry Creek Red Angus, it’s breeding season! To many of our neighbors, and maybe to many of you, it may seem like an odd time to turn out our bulls. Most people in our area have already finished breeding season and perhaps even begun to preg check. Why do we breed so…
Read MoreLuhman: The Inherent Value of Livestock Integration Into a Crop Farm
One of the most undervalued tools in a farmers toolbox is integrating livestock on the land. Cover crops and perennial grasses make it possible to harvest sunlight, cover our soil, feed biology, and sequester carbon for an additional 2-4 months before and after a cash crop. But it is livestock that allows us to harvest…
Read MoreDirt Rich Heads to Pasture
The latest two episodes of Dirt Rich are focused on grazing. Kent Solberg and Doug Voss return for some timely perspective on “Designing Cover Crops for Late Season Grazing.” They discuss the biological benefits of grazing complex cover crops (nicknamed “biological primers”), and walk us through the process of designing a seed mix that will…
Read MoreDirt Rich Episode 5: To Clip, or Not to Clip?
The latest episode of Dirt Rich gets into clipping: a pasture management tool with a lot of potential so long as it is used in the right context, as members of our Soil Health Team remind us. Kent Solberg and Doug Voss discuss a variety of factors to take into consideration as you decide whether…
Read MoreA Growing Culture of Soil Health
On the latest episode of our Dirt Rich podcast series, Theresa Keaveny calls up Troy Daniell, NRCS State Conservationist. Personally, I really enjoyed listening to their conversation unfold on soil health work in Minnesota, the role livestock play, and land healing and resilience. An ecologist by training and passion, he says “we’ve always got to be in…
Read MoreDirt Rich Hits the Airwaves
We’re excited to announce the debut of SFA’s new podcast series: Dirt Rich. Each episode will bring you a seasonal conversation on food and farming, and highlight the regenerative agriculture work in Minnesota. As you know, there’s a wealth of knowledge in the farmer-to-farmer network, and plenty of people willing to share their experiences. Farmers,…
Read MoreDGA Update: Develop, Improve Skills With Our New Borrower Training Program
The Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship has some exciting news to share! DGA has been approved as a national vendor for FSA’s Borrower Training Program. Farm Service Agency, which requires financial management training for its beginning farmer loan agreements, has approved DGA to provide that training nationwide. FSA works with local and national vendors to help borrowers…
Read MoreSolberg on Soil: Let Progress Affect Your Farm Goals: Measure & Monitor for Regenerative Success
“Are we there yet?” is the all-too-familiar phrase heard from the back seat of the car during a family road trip. Similar questions have arisen from farmers who have started down a journey of soil regeneration wondering about their progress. I don’t recall who stated it first, but “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”…
Read MoreSolberg on Soil: The Basics of Creating Wildlife Habitat
Creating wildlife habitat is often cited among landowners and farmers as a reason to alter management on their land, including moving to a focus on soil health. For some species generalists such as deer, downy woodpeckers and Canada geese, this is easy as they can thrive in suburban areas, golf courses and parks as well…
Read MoreSolberg on Soil: Small Grains Can Work in Crop Rotation
Corn and soybean farmers question the financial ability of adding small grains, namely wheat, into their crop rotation. Dr. David Hooker presents some interesting work on calculating returns when adding wheat inter-seeded with red clover to the corn and soybean rotation. While the video is a few years old, he stands by the thought process…
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