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 her farm business. Others noticed too, and in 2013 she started teaching marketing to fellow...

Click here to learn more about the January 2024 Principles of Biological Systems workshop in Elk River, Minn. 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...

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 -- and has even reduced his labor by about half.   Jonathan Kilpatrick, SFA Farmer Education...

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: "I think every producer I've worked with over the years I've learned something from." The pair also...

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 on-farm coaching and consulting. Get started here. Drought can be a real source of stress for...

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 in labor and input costs. The pair walk through some definitions, the components to consider in a...

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 groundwork for how Jared and his father farm today. Jared also discusses the common perception of...

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 SFA’s work and how individuals can plug in. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the Emerging Farmers...

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 the prototype phase, mounts to the front of a UTV or 4-wheeler and uses sonar waves to measure...

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. Dan and his wife operate Cedar Crate Farm southeast of Mankato, growing produce for their CSA...

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, pack shed layout, seed bed prep, food safety considerations, Lean Farm techniques and more. You...

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 Doug Voss, SFA Grazing Lead Kent Solberg, SFA Senior Technical Advisor Jonathan Kilpatrick, SFA...

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 [email protected]. 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 through the SFA website or becoming a member at any time.   SFA Annual Conference: February 11, 2023...

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 organic dairy, some grass-fed or grass-finished beef. While there’s no one-size fits all management...

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-based dairy in La Crescent. The Crowleys were hired by owners Art and Jean Thicke in the...

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 some changes, including going completely no-till on their soybeans and reducing tillage overall,...

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 of establishing and fine-tuning their management systems, grazing has become absolutely key in...

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 grazing plays a role in building soil health and resilience in our eco-systems Stocking...

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 apprentice at Polyface Farm, a manager of a nonprofit farm in Vermont, a grazier in Oklahoma, and...

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. ----------------------- “Minnesotans don’t like that garlic. They don’t eat that spicy stuff, dontcha know?”...

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 results? In this episode, we learn about a handful of different tests and the scenarios they may...

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 having a “plan B” is always helpful. Sharing experiences with other producers in your area can...

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 an ordering process. All payment happens in advance of the weekly pick-up day, where everyone...

“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, including adjusting his nutrient management plan. Now, Dale says they are more responsible with where...