Dirt Rich

Scott Haase farms in Blue Earth, Minnesota, raising crops with his brother Brent and raising pasture and woodland pork under Blue Dirt Farm. Their German ancestors “walked here from Wisconsin back in the 1860’s,” and they still farm some of the land where those ancestors homesteaded. Like most in the area, the Haase family farm is still a fairly conventional corn and soybeans farm. They have made...

Following Dirt Rich's previous episode, 57: Fundamentals of Adaptive Grazing  with Jonathan Kilpatrick, we thought it would be a great time to revisit our conversation on Adaptive Multi-Paddock grazing with Jared Luhman and Doug Voss.   If you enjoy Dirt Rich, consider supporting our work by becoming a member of SFA or donating at www.sfa-mn.org. ---------------------------------- Over the years o...

Today, a presentation that our Soil Health Specialist Jonathan Kilpatrick gave on adaptive grazing at a recent field day. He’ll bring you through the fundamentals, always keeping in mind the importance of context in grazing management. Jonathan believes that grazing is one of  the most powerful forces we can have to regenerate our soils. A topic overview: Why we adaptively graze How adaptive grazi...

Jared Luhman sits down with SFA's new Soil Health Specialist, Jonathan Kilpatrick. Jonathan comes to Minnesota after several years in several states, where he built a diverse background in agricultural work. He grew up farming with his family, eventually building up a 250-300 member CSA vegetable operation with his brothers. Time in other parts of the country has been spent as an intern and appren...

The Minnesota Garlic Festival returns to Hutchinson, Minnesota this Saturday, August 13! And that's got us thinking about seed garlic and planning ahead for the fall planting. Please enjoy this delightful conversation with two seasoned garlic growers, and consider joining us on Saturday for garlic food, fun, and conversations with farmers. Originally released September 16, 2020. ------------------...

There are many tests you can do yourself on your farm to measure soil health, and we've talked about some of them on Dirt Rich before (check out Episode 47: Four DIY Soil Health Tests ). Today, Jared interviews Lance Gunderson of Regen Ag Lab on the utility of lab soil testing, particularly for farmers on a regenerative path. Why do do a lab soil test? Which one? How often? What do you do with the...

Originally released July 15, 2020. ------ It’s about that time to plant for late season grazing. Kent Solberg and Doug Voss discuss the biological benefits of grazing complex cover crops (nicknamed “biological primers”), and walk you through the process of designing a seed mix that will fit the unique context of your farm. As we know, things can change rather quickly, and remaining adaptable and h...

Finnish farmer Thomas Snellman coined the concept of REKO Rings in 2013, and in the last few years they’ve begun to sprout in Wisconsin and Minnesota. This unique model of a local food market is connecting thousands of eaters directly to their local farmers using regional Facebook groups for each ring. Each week, participating growers post what they have to offer and customers comment to initiate...

“I went in thinking I wouldn’t have to do a darn thing.” Farmer Dale Buendorf was well on his way to becoming certified through the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program at the outset, having implemented no-till and strip-till on his acres of corn and soybeans. While working with his certifier, Herman Bartsch, they discovered that there were just a few tweaks to make, includin...

We're taking a break this week as we prepare for many in-field events coming up this summer. Check out our event calendar at www.sfa-mn.org  to find out what's going on near you! With dozens of events going through the fall, there's something for everyone. Also: we're on YouTube! Episodes 1-5 are available on the Sustainable Farming Association YouTube channel now, and we'll be uploading the full...

As we approach our big field day at the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge that will demonstrate targeted grazing to restore oak savanna, we thought it would be a good time to revisit this episode with Tyler Carlson and Stephen Thomforde. This episode was originally released February 17, 2021, and its preceding episode is 23: Oak Savanna Origins. ------ Tyler and Stephen pick up their conversation...

We wrap up our Farm Succession Miniseries with a conversation with Jim Molenaar, a longtime Farm Business Management educator and “farm boy.” Today, he works with 55-60 different farm families around St. Cloud through the Northern Agricultural Center of Excellence, counseling on areas such as day-to-day management, financials, and succession. Molenaar’s top three essentials in the farm succession...

Jerry Ford and Mariénne Kreitlow are the fourth generation on a farm with a legacy in conservation. Living Song Farm sits on highly erodible land near Minnesota’s Crow River, but the practices introduced in the 1940’s by Mariénne’s father, Willard Kreitlow , have generated topsoil for decades. Jerry and Mariénne share Willard’s land ethic, and have worked for several years to find a non-family fif...

Megan Roberts has experienced many farm transitions–as a non-farm heir to her family dairy farm, as an in-law in a family farm transition, and as an educator. Drawing on over a decade in personal and professional experience in farm succession and estate planning, in this episode she shares several points of consideration for families navigating tough conversations and the complex process of succes...

Using livestock to restore landscapes may seem like a contradiction, but oak savannas thrive with disturbance. Grazier Doug Voss and PhD candidate Austin Yantes are involved in a project at the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge , studying the results of carefully managed cattle grazing, tree thinning, and burning in striving to meet Sherburne’s ecological goals. The Sherburne National Wildlife Re...

With springtime around the corner, this week we're revisiting our 2021 episode on managing spring grazing. When is the best time to turn the cows out? Kent Solberg and Jared Luhman dig into this decision that sets you up for the rest of the grazing season. It can be awful tempting to get started as soon as we see green, but Kent illustrates how letting the pasture mature a bit more can extend the...

Sarah Lindblom returns to Dirt Rich today to share four soil health tests that you can do at home to gain insight on the soil’s physical, chemical, and biological function. These tests can be valuable to gardeners and farmers at any scale, and can be done using simple materials from your recycling bin: Infiltration test - simulates a 1 inch rain event, demonstrates soil structure and indicates bio...

Audrey Lomax manages the grazing enterprises of MNL , a Minnesota-based land management and restoration company that provides ecological products and services. One of the neat parts of her job is that she manages thousands of acres under solar arrays with their flock of 2500 Katahdin sheep. This service provides vegetation management and pollinator habitat in a regenerative way that otherwise woul...

Meat processing has long been a challenge for local food producers in Minnesota. In this episode, we discuss meat production and processing in the southeast part of the state with Eric Klein of Hidden Stream Farm and Dover Processing. Klein’s diverse array of businesses compliment each other, both improving soil health and supporting local foods and communities. He raises grass fed beef, hogs, pas...

When Jared and Valerie Luhman's customers started requesting soy- and corn-free chicken, they decided to try making some changes to the way they raised their flock on pasture in order to see how they might sustainably meet this demand at a larger scale. Grants from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and SARE supported upgrading their chicken tractor, feeding and watering infrastructure, and s...

Mehgan Blair and Nate Watters are two orchardists and hyper-local craft cidermakers in different Minnesota landscapes. Blair and her family steward a historic dairy farm with an heirloom orchard in Duluth: Canosia Grove. Icelandic sheep are their “land managers,” grazing and conditioning the soil for an eventual expanded orchard. Watters and his family started their now 6-acre orchard from scratch...

Kaleb Anderson is the third generation of his family farm in Goodhue, Minnesota, and grew up with a conventional ag background. Living in the Driftless region, soil degradation and erosion were always a big concern. Since moving back onto the farm in 2006, Anderson has adjusted practices and diversified the business. He would say that he’s still very much on his ‘soil health journey’ over a decade...

(Originally released October 28, 2020) Kathy Zeman pasture-raises a veritable menagerie: goats, sheep, pigs, ducks, geese, turkeys, broilers, hens, meat rabbits, and honeybees graze her twenty acres at Simple Harvest Farm Organics. She grew up farming, and first got started on poultry with her brother for a 4-H project. “Nick’s Eggs” continues today, available at the Just Food Co-op in Northfield....

Dr. Anna Cates, the State Soil Health Specialist for the Minnesota Office for Soil Health (MOSH), discusses the roles and interplay of both scientific research and anecdotes in soil health education and implementation with host Jared Luhman. In her opinion, both are quite valuable in making the case for using soil health techniques on the farm. In this episode, Dr. Cates shares the research she is...

We're shaking it up a bit this episode! Cohosts Jared Luhman and Katie Feterl reflect on the last year: drought challenges and lessons, in-field experiences across the state, hopeful moments, and observations from different spaces in the regenerative ag world. Links: Find all upcoming field days, workshops, webinars and more on our event calendar .  You can also find more detailed information abou...