THE LAND — NOVEMBER 12/NOVEMBER 19, 2021
www.thelandonline.com — “Where Farm and Family Meet”
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Calendar of Events Visit www.TheLandOnline.com to view our complete calendar & enter your own events, or send an e-mail with your event’s details to editor@thelandonline.com. Nov. 23 — Farmland Rental Workshop — Buffalo, Minn. — Topics include local historic and projected farmland rental rate trends, current farmland values and sales, and a worksheet that will help determine a fair rental agreement. Contact Dave Bau at bauxx003@umn.edu or (507) 360-0664. Nov. 23 — Annie s Project: Farm Business Management — Clarion, Iowa — Course participants will learn effective strategies to make good decisions in the five key risk management areas of: financial, human resources, legal, marketing, and production. Contact Missy Loux at louxm@iastate.edu or (515) 532-3453. Nov. 29 —Farmland Rental Workshop — Hutchinson, Minn. — Contact Dave Bau at bauxx003@umn.edu or (507) 360-0664. Nov. 29 —Farmland Rental Workshop — Gaylord, Minn. — Contact Dave Bau at bauxx003@umn. edu or (507) 360-0664. Nov. 30 — Farmland Rental Workshop — Willmar, Minn. — Contact Dave Bau at bauxx003@umn. edu or (507) 360-0664. Dec. 2 — Rural Forum: Weathering the Extremes from Farm to Main Street — Mankato, Minn. — GreenSeam’s annual reception and dinner event connecting public leaders and a wide range of attendees from the agricultural sector, such as producers, manufacturers, educators, researches, and more.
This event is a great opportunity for conversations about key issues facing the rural economy, as well as brainstorming potential solutions. Contact GreenSeam at info@greenseam.org or (507) 385-6672. Dec. 8 —Farmland Rental Workshop — Litchfield, Minn. — Contact Dave Bau at bauxx003@ umn.edu or (507) 360-0664. Dec. 8 —Farmland Rental Workshop — Olivia, Minn. — Contact Dave Bau at bauxx003@umn.edu or (507) 360-0664. Dec. 9 — Agricultural Market Situation and Outlook Webinar — Online — Hear from North Dakota State University Extension economics specialists on a variety of timely issues related to agricultural markets. Contact david.ripplinger@ndsu.edu. Dec. 10 — Crop Management Input Seminar — Hutchinson, Minn. — Topics include weed control; improving fertilizer return on investment; managing corn rootworm; and markets. Contact Karen Johnson at ande9495@umn.edu or (320) 484-4303 Dec. 11 — FEAST! Festival — Rochester, Minn. — 100 regional food businesses on display. Most use locally-grown ingredients. Contact Elena Byrne at elena@rtcinfo.org or (608) 712-8340 Dec. 14 & 15 — Soil Management Summit — Mankato, Minn. — The Summit features presentations and Q&A sessions with researchers, farmers and agricultural advisors, information from sponsors and conversations with farmers experienced in different soil health practices. Contact Jodi DeJongHughes at dejon003@umn.edu
Jan. 21 & 22 —Farm Couple Retreat — Faribault, Minn. — Learn about creative communication skills, personality differences, and resources to help each couple reach their goals and attain better management of the stresses of farming and family relationships. Learn how to communicate with your partner and children more effectively and enjoy a mini-vacation as a couple from the farm. Contact Leah M Bischof at leahbischof@gmail.com or (320) 4290611. Feb. 4 & 5 — Farm Couple Retreat — St. Cloud, Minn. — Learn about creative communication skills, personality differences, and resources to help each couple reach their goals and attain better management of the stresses of farming and family relationships. Learn how to communicate with your partner and children more effectively and enjoy a mini-vacation as a couple from the farm. Contact Leah M Bischof at leahbischof@gmail.com or (320) 4290611. Feb. 11 & 12 — Farm Couple Retreat — Thief River Falls, Minn. — Learn about creative communication skills, personality differences, and resources to help each couple reach their goals and attain better management of the stresses of farming and family relationships. Learn how to communicate with your partner and children more effectively and enjoy a mini-vacation as a couple from the farm. Contact Leah M Bischof at leahbischof@gmail.com or (320) 429-0611.
Mower SWCD, USDA seek partners to enroll cropland AUSTIN, Minn. — After a big rain, Wayne DeWall would see soil from his Mower County cropland washing away in the headwaters of the Root River’s south branch. However, in recent years that has changed where DeWall has established sections of native vegetation called “prairie strips” in strategic spots of his cropland south of Grand Meadow. With those in place, he has seen a difference. “Sometimes when you get a bigger rain event, you’ll have soil get trapped right in the edges of the prairie strip there,” DeWall said, “but that’s as far as it goes basically, which is exactly what we wanted and that’s good to see it actually working.” Prairie strips are a way of conserving soil, improving water quality and providing habitat for wildlife and pollinators. Ranging from 30 to 120 feet in width, prairie strips are highly effective at reducing the loss of sediment, nutrients and pesticides when stormwater runs off cropland. Farmers and landowners can sign up to establish prairie strips through the federal Conservation
Reserve Program (CRP) under a 10- or 15-year conservation contract that keeps those acres from being used for cropland. CRP provides landowners with $258 to $300 per acre annually under the prairie-strip program, with most of the costs covered through costshare assistance for preparing the site, purchasing seed, seeding the land and establishing the practice. With this specific CRP program, farmers can drive equipment on the strips, which is not allowed in most other CRP programs. More than 10 years of research has shown prairie strips can yield strong benefits for reducing excess amounts of sediment, nutrients and pesticides in stormwater runoff when integrated in small amounts into strategic spots within corn and soybean fields. Iowa State University research shows planting dense, diverse and deeply rooted strips of prairie next to corn and soybean fields has environmental benefits. These small amounts of prairie come in the form of in-field, contour buffer strips and edge-of-field filter strips. Prairie strips provide strong benefits to a greater degree than other types of perennial vegeta-
tion because they incorporate a diverse array of native plant species with deep, multi-layered root systems and stiff stems that hold up during runoff from a driving rain. Prairie mixes have a high density of flowers that promote pollinators and look colorful throughout spring, summer and fall. DeWall has been pleased with what he has seen growing in his prairie strips. “I’m very happy – we’ve got lots of native grasses, lots of flowers,” DeWall said. “It’s exactly what we were looking for when we started this. It took a few years to get to this point so you just have to be patient with it.” DeWall’s prairie strip was implemented as part of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Root River Field to Stream Partnership program, with partners closely monitoring and measuring each stormwater runoff event at the site. This article was submitted by the Mower Soil and Water Conservation District. v
