Soil, water, carbon and the practices that keep a farm productive for the next generation.
The summer glut is here. How to grade for seconds, sell imperfect produce, process the surplus, set up a gleaning partnership, feed culls to livestock within the rules, and claim the enhanced tax deduction, with composting as the last resort.
Kernza is a grain you plant once and harvest for years. Here is what it is, where the acres are, what it yields, how it doubles as forage, what the soil and water research shows, and whether a small farm should try it.
How to take a soil carbon baseline that will still mean something in five years: sampling depth and density, bulk density, the lab method to ask for, when to sample, how much change is detectable, and why the baseline is for your management first.
Put a tenth of a sloping corn and soybean field into native prairie strips and the Iowa State trials say most of the soil, phosphorus and nitrogen stays put. Layout, seeding, first-year mowing, costs per treated acre and what CRP practice CP43 pays.
Fertilizer prices eased in 2024, then a tariff order landed on the country that ships most of our potash. The nitrogen bill is the one you control. Legume credits, honest manure math, a sidedress soil test and strip trials show where cuts are safe.
Biochar helps most on sandy, acidic, low-organic-matter ground and does little on fertile temperate loams. What the meta-analyses show, how NRCS practice 336 treats it, rates per acre, charging it with compost, the fall window and what it costs.
Where native plantings fit a farm layout, how to keep something in bloom from April to frost, when to mow and spray around habitat, and what CRP's CP42 practice and NRCS conservation cover pay toward field edges and marginal ground.
What a windbreak or hedgerow does for wind, soil, yield and beneficial insects, which species to plant by region, how to space and establish them, what NRCS practices 380 and 422 pay for, and where state nurseries sell the seedlings this winter.
Fall is carbon season. How to build and turn a farm windrow, hit the right carbon to nitrogen ratio, keep the temperature log, meet the organic and food safety rules, and know when a state permit applies.
Cover crops pay only when the species fit the job, the planting window and the crop that follows. A decision guide by US region and rotation: single species or mix, cool or warm season, seeding rates, cost per acre, termination timing and NRCS help.
Ever thought about the importance and sustainability of healthy soils and food? Or how it is possible to restore our planet and help it heal from the pollution that humans have been causing over decades? And the vital role sustainable farms...
In recent decades, soils have been depleted and polluted, and the trend continues. Clean drinking and irrigation water is now scarcer than ever. As a result, biodiversity is declining at a rapid rate. In response, circular agriculture is...
