Soil Health
Columnist: Why We’re Missing the Mark With Clean Water
By Scott Haase Editor’s Note: Scott Haase is a member of the SFA Board of Directors. He wrote this article for the Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance. Contact Scott at scott@bluedirtfarm.com. For years, I’ve been watching the Blue Earth River wildly fluctuating in terms of its flow. It can be nearly dried up and then a…
Read MoreSolberg on Soil: Managed Grazing for Replacement Heifers
Dairy farmers are struggling with low milk prices. A large cost for dairy producers is rearing replacement heifers. Depending upon whose numbers you look at it costs between $1,700-$2,400 to raise a heifer to first lactation. This is not financially competitive given current heifer market values ($800-$1,000/head). Managed grazing can be an effective means to…
Read MoreSolberg on Soil: Videos, Tighty Whities, Soil as Biology & More
Dr. Mike Lehmann, who spoke at the 2016 Midwest Soil Health Summit, is featured in this three-video series that explores how a diversity of microbes in healthy soil can accelerate decomposition. Spoiler alert: the cotton undies decomposed faster in the more diverse crop rotation. View the videos on our Soil Health Videos page (to order…
Read MoreFrom the Executive Director: Silvopasture is Next-Level Soil Health
Minnesota has over 650,000 acres of unmanaged farm woodlands that are being grazed by livestock but are yielding limited economic and environmental benefits. Without active management of livestock, forage and trees, this practice produces limited forage, lower weight gain, environmental challenges and little to no soil health benefits. That statistic was shared at SFA’s Greater…
Read MoreNew Resources and Lessons Learned in Grazing Cover Crops: Save Money, Build Soil Health
Wade Dooley is a sixth-generation farmer who operates Glenwood Century Farm in Albion, Iowa. Since 2015, he and seven other cooperating farmers in Iowa and Minnesota have participated in a grazing cover crops trial to dig into the benefits of grazing diverse cover crops with cattle. Wade and the other cooperators wanted to quantify just…
Read MoreSolberg on Soil: Cover Crop Videos Worth Watching
By Kent Solberg • SFA Livestock & Grazing Specialist Innovation in cover crops and crop rotations in this video may be a stretch for much of Minnesota, but something along these lines may hold potential in southern part of the state under right conditions and variety selection. It’s worth watching just to get the creative…
Read MoreFrom 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 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…
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