Dirt Rich

Or, "The Hog Man of Brandon." Patrick Toomey is the Sustainable Farming Association's new Grazing Education Lead. In this episode we get to know Patrick through the story of his career, which brought him to natural gas fields in Wyoming, the InterTribal Buffalo Council, Holisitic Management, private consulting, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). In this conversation with Jonath...

Prescribed burning is an accessible, if intimidating, conservation and management tool for farms and private lands. This episode’s guests bring decades of first-hand experience of strategically and safely using fire to help meet their ecological goals. The benefits of burning can compound: curbed tick or liver fluke populations can reduce herd mortality that would otherwise be a blow to your botto...

After returning to the family farm, Ethan Johnson opened Amo Creamery and farm store near Windom, Minnesota at the end of 2025. In this episode, he shares the dairy history of both his family and the region, his education and career, and how he was gradually drawn "like a magnet" back to the farm to build a community-tied creamery from the ground up.   Ethan Johnson, Amo Creamery Mary Fischer, Sou...

Ryan Hough and his brother run a diversified crop and cattle operation in Barnesville, Minnesota. They began their “soil health journey” roughly 10 years ago, and are constantly learning and refining the ways they integrate livestock into their cropping system in order to build the health of their soil and profitability. Kim Melton combines her background in agriculture with conservation through h...

Jonathan interviews Joel Barr of Abraham’s Table Farm in Sandstone, Minnesota. Since the time of recording, Joel has also joined SFA’s team of consultants as our Market Garden & Farm Management Systems Consultant! Joel and his wife Megan have been farming for over a decade, producing vegetables, eggs, beef, and chicken for their community through a CSA and other direct markets across east cent...

"Nature is never done." Buckthorn removal has been a long, uphill battle for folks managing their woodlands and prairies – whether it be for recreation, farming, or aesthetics. And buckthorn is just one species in a much larger brush management problem that we see across Minnesota and the Midwest. Today’s roundtable of guests bring expertise in ecological restoration, forestry, silvopasture, and a...

Planning to host an event on your farm can quickly become complicated, even as a one-time or annual occasion. Jerry Ford (SFA) and Brett Olson ( Renewing the Countryside ) give experienced guidance on site planning, food and health regulations, risk management and liability, ticketing, vendors and more! At the very least, you're going to learn where not to put a port-a-potty. Resources: Jerry Ford...

Jared Luhman returns to the mic to interview Bruce Tiffany, a fourth-generation row crop farmer in Redwood County, Minnesota. Bruce knows those rolling hills along the Redwood River intimately: he has farmed over 54 seasons there. He currently grows soy, corn, and rye. Motivated by a desire to minimize inputs and to do right by previous and future generations, Bruce has shifted his practices to mi...

Dan Kittredge grew up on a homestead with a family deeply engaged in the organic movement. Over the years, he worked on farms across the globe and learned from permaculture, biodynamic, agroecology, indigenous, conventional, and microbiological perspectives. With a foundation in both the practical and the philosophical, he created the Bionutrient Food Association (BFA) in 2010, who makes it their...

Two farmers on the SFA team share what they've learned over several years of operating CSAs and selling at farmers' markets. Dan Zimmerli of Cedar Crate Farm (Waldorf) and Lauren Barry of Dancing Gnome Farm (Wabasha) talk about how they've grown their businesses, the tech that helps them day-to-day, and how they design their farm stands at the market to boost sales and build relationships with cus...

Click here to learn more and register for the upcoming workshop with Charlotte Smith.    Charlotte Smith swore she would never return to farming after a very difficult family farm bankruptcy while growing up. Spoiler: After some time working in the corporate world, she started a farm in 2009. She found that the time management, hiring, and interpersonal skills she had learned also really benefited...

Dan Kittredge grew up on a homestead with a family deeply engaged in the organic movement. Over the years, he worked on farms across the globe and learned from permaculture, biodynamic, agroecology, indigenous, conventional, and microbiological perspectives. With a foundation in both the practical and the philosophical, he created the Bionutrient Food Association (BFA) in 2010, who makes it their...

Derek Schmitz has never dreamt of being anything other than a farmer. He also really doesn't like doing field work. An adaptively managed, perennial grazing dairy just makes sense.  In this conversation Schmitz shares how fellow dairy farmers helped him get started, and how genetics, observation and building his own farm team through the Minnesota Dairy Initiative have been key to his success -- a...

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 foundational in his career:...

Five SFA farm consultants from across Minnesota discuss how they are approaching and planning ahead for drought conditions on their varying grazing operations. While conditions have changed since this conversation was recorded in early June 2023, their goals and decision-making strategies are evergreen. Listeners are welcome to reach out with questions. Drop us a line! SFA also offers our members...

Jonathan Kilpatrick and Jared Luhman return to the mic to explore farm financial health. Doing a thorough business analysis can help you clearly identify specifically where your profits and losses lie across your enterprises, and in turn help you make confident decisions for your farm’s future. In their experience, the time you take to get a handle on your numbers usually pays itself back quickly...

We’re switching it up today! Jonathan Kilpatrick moves into the host seat and interviews Jared Luhman about the history of farming in his family and about his time working for Sustainable Farming Association. A pivotal moment for the trajectory of the family farm came when a visiting student told them they were working too hard. The listening and learning (and traveling!) that followed laid the gr...

In 2022, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) opened the state's first  Emerging Farmers Office . 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 they are seeing. SFA’s Executive Director Lucinda Winter hosts this discussion, exploring the connections with...

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 through an NRCS cooperative agreement. The PaddockTrac device, which is in...

We're back! Dirt Rich kicks off its fourth season with the second part of Jared Luhman's interview with Dan Zimmerli (check out part one here ). The two get into the business management side of the farm -- employees, task tracking, data management and record keeping -- and how the Zimmerlis have leveraged it all to improve efficiency, profitability, and quality of life for them and their staff. Da...

This will be the last episode of season 3, and 2022! Thanks for listening, and we'll see you back in 2023 with another episode on vegetable production with Dan, conversations on new grazing technology, and other great interviews! Jared Luhman and Dan Zimmerli in conversation about vegetable production logistics from planting to harvest on Cedar Crate Farm. They discuss equipment, planning tools, p...

Jared Luhman, Doug Voss, Kent Solberg, and Jonathan Kilpatrick discuss what's on their mind in the ag world at this point in the season. As we approach winter in the Midwest, folks are looking ahead and planning for next year. The team highlights the many opportunities for making changes on the farm in the next season guided by the principles of soil health.   Jared Luhman, SFA Soil Health Lead Do...

Katie Feterl and Jared Luhman discuss SFA's on-farm consulting offering, how you can support our work, and highlight two big upcoming events: Annual Conference and Midwest Soil Health Summit. Contact Jared Luhman about consulting at jared@sfa-mn.org . You can also visit our Staff Page .   Give to the Max : November 17, 2022 (Giving open through the end of November). You can also support by giving...

Originally released November 16, 2020. Winter can be the most expensive time to own a cow in the Midwest. As the season changes, five of our staff who also raise beef and dairy cows gathered to share the ways that they’ve found to reduce the cost (and labor) of wintering cattle on their unique operations. All five live in different parts of Minnesota and run pasture-based farms, some raising organ...

Chad Crowley firmly believes that for those who want to get into dairy or farming in general, grazing is the way to go. That route has certainly gone well for him. He was told many times that he couldn’t find success in farming because he didn’t grow up on one, but today he and his wife Melissa farm in southeast Minnesota as part of Enchanted Meadows Farms. Enchanted Meadows is an organic, pasture...