LSP's Ear to the Ground

“How do I make this pasture pay?” beginning farmer Heidi Eger asked a group of fellow graziers during an LSP Soil Health Hub gathering. They answered by measuring out an ideal paddock and putting pen to paper.

More Information:

• Radicle Heart Farm

• Ear to the Ground 265: Diving into Safer Waters

• Ear to the Ground 405: High Voltage

• Ear to the Ground 404: Closing the Loop

• Farm Beginnings

• LSP’s Soil Builders’ Network

• Blog: Soil Health Hub Gathering Illustrates the Power of Dreams Anchored in Reality

Chad and Melissa Crowley are using managed rotational grazing, soil health, and solar arrays to create a good energy flow on the dairy farm they’re transitioning into. They are also utilizing LSP’s Soil Health Hub to field a few burning questions and recharge their batteries.

More Information:

• LSP’s Soil Builders’ Network

• Blog: Soil Health Hub Gathering Illustrates the Power of Dreams Anchored in Reality

• Ear to the Ground 404: Closing the Loop

• Ear to the Ground 50: Why the Pond on this Dairy Farm Didn’t Overflow During a Rainstorm

Paul and Delores Moechnig are working to prove to the next generation that the road to farming’s future doesn’t have to pass through corn and soybean fields. It turns out the bluebirds and swallows appreciate the offramp they’ve taken into rotational grazing as well.

More Information:

• LSP’s Soil Builders’ Network

• Blog: Soil Health Hub Gathering Illustrates the Power of Dreams Anchored in Reality

• Ear to the Ground 391: Grounded in Grazing

• Ear to the Ground 390: Sounds of Success

• Ear to the Ground 371: Avian Award

• Ear to the Gr...

Emily and Ryan Kjesbo-Johnson vowed their lifelong commitment to community would not stop when they moved out of their urban neighborhood and onto a farm. Farm Beginnings is helping them keep that promise.

More Information:

• LSP’s Farm Beginnings Course (2026-2027 Early Bird Discount Deadline Aug. 1, 2026; Final Deadline Sept. 1, 2026)

• Crowded Table Farm

• LSP’s “Fresh Voices” Beginning Farmer Podcast Series

Jane Marynik’s pursuit of perfection ran into a brick wall called vegetable farming. LSP’s Farm Beginnings has helped her strike a more sustainable balance between work and life.

More Information:

• LSP’s Farm Beginnings Course (2026-2027 Early Bird Discount Deadline Aug. 1, 2026; Final Deadline Sept. 1, 2026)

• Four Beans Farm

• Food Farm

• LSP’s “Fresh Voices” Beginning Farmer Podcast Series

Livestock producer Frances Kelliher admits to being a bit cynical and burnt-out on her first day in LSP’s Farm Beginnings course. But the program helped revitalize her belief that regenerative grazing can renew one’s relationship with the land and community.

More Information:

• LSP’s Farm Beginnings Course (2026-2027 Early Bird Discount Deadline Aug. 1, 2026; Final Deadline Sept. 1, 2026)

• Riverbed Lamb

Josh Bryceson sees The Good Acre food hub as a way to not only build markets for local vegetable producers, but to germinate the next generation of farmers (2 of 2 parts).

More Information:

• The Good Acre Food Hub

• LSP’s Community-Based Food Systems Program

• Ear to the Ground 399: Asking Why

A decade ago, veggie and livestock farmers Josh Bryceson and Rama Hoffpauir realized sweat equity would only take them so far in their ag journey, so they looked up from the grindstone long enough to take in the big picture (1 of 2 parts).

More Information:

• Turnip Rock Farm & Cosmic Wheel Creamery

• LSP’s Farm Beginnings Course

• Farmland Access Holistic Financial Decision-Making Tool

Over the past three decades, the rotating Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems has provided farmers and others a chance to build a more sustainable farm and food system in Minnesota. Farmer and community leader Marvin Johnson says now is not the time to close that public door into the University.

More Information:

• Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture

• Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems

• Opinion: Funding Cuts Hit Sustainable Agriculture Partnership with U of M

• Blog: Don Wyse’s Land Grant Legacy

• Blog: Endowed Chair Puts the Right People in the Right...

In 1986, Joe Paddock co-authored a book called Soil and Survival. Its message: the relationship between farming and the land is in serious need of repair. Four decades later, that message is more relevant than ever.

More Information:

• Soil and Survival

• Planting in the Dust Script

• Joe Paddock

• Joe Paddock’s Books

• Nancy Paddock • Carol Bly

• Making Change from the Ground Up: 40 Stories for 40 Years of Land Stewardship Project

These three crop producers see no reason why productive farming and clean water can’t co-exist. But first, we need to stop the greenwashing and get our hands dirty. (2 of 2 parts; part 1 is here)

More Information:

• Ear to the Ground 395: The Lobe Rangers

• LSP Soil Health Web Page

• LSP Myth Buster No. 68: “When Nitrogen is Gone, it Can be Forgotten”

• SARE Fact Sheet: “Cover Crops at Work: Keeping Nutrients Out of Waterways”

• Article: “A report tied Iowa’s water pollution to agriculture. Then the money to promote it mysteriously disappea...

In the Corn Belt, water quality is not improving at a rate that is leading to meaningful landscape level change, and these poster boys for conservation farming say it’s time for the ag industry, commodity groups, and government to step up and take responsibility. (1 of 2 parts; part 2 here)

More Information:

• Ear to the Ground 396: Accountable Ag

• LSP Soil Health Web Page

• LSP Myth Buster No. 68: “When Nitrogen is Gone, it Can be Forgotten”

• SARE Fact Sheet: “Cover Crops at Work: Keeping Nutrients Out of Waterways”

• LSP Blog: The Crop Insur...

As a farmer and entrepreneur, John Strohfus sees the production of food-grade crops as a key opportunity for regenerative farmers to forge links in a value chain based on building healthy soil.

More Information:

• Jan. 27, 2026, LSP Workshop — “Beyond Exports: Rebuilding Local Markets”

• Field Theory Foods

• LSP Small Grains Web Page

• Ear to the Ground podcast 393: Risk Reducers

• Ear to the Ground podcast 392: Diversity’s Diet

Alan Jostock uses the kind of diversity that builds soil health as a kind of insurance policy for his farm. That means meshing his crop and livestock enterprises in a way that they prop each other up through thick and thin.

More Information:

• Jan. 27, 2026, LSP Workshop — “Beyond Exports: Rebuilding Local Markets”

• LSP Small Grains Web Page

• Ear to the Ground podcast 392: Diversity’s Diet

• Rolling J Farm’s Facebook Page

• Minnesota Farm Business Management Programs

Farmer and small grains marketer Matt Kruger sees a rotation based on raising food grade crops as a way for farmers to get rewarded for building soil health. It’s also a way to fight the only thing he truly hates.

More Information:

• Jan. 27, 2026, LSP Workshop — “Beyond Exports: Rebuilding Local Markets”

• LSP Small Grains Web Page

• Green Acres Milling

• Ear to the Ground podcast 363: Small Grain-Big Opportunity

Ashly Steinke remembers well the first time he saw a bobolink on pastured land that formerly grew corn and soybeans — it was a sign that he was successfully blending beef, birds, and biology.

More Information:

• LSP’s Grazing & Soil Health Web Page

• Audubon Conservation Ranching Program

• The Monitoring Project’s “Tool Box”

• Ear to the Ground 390: Sounds of Success

• Ear to the Ground 371: Avian Award

• Ear to the Ground 370: Bending the Bird Curve

• Ear to the Ground 275: Blurring the Bobolink Boundaries

More Information:

• LSP’s Grazing & Soil Health Web Page

• NODPA Article on Kevin Mahalko

• Ear to the Ground 371: Avian Award

• Ear to the Ground 370: Bending the Bird Curve

• Ear to the Ground 275: Blurring the Bobolink Boundaries

Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Odette says in the battle to make sure Big Ag plays by the rules, knowledge is power. That’s why, if we are to have a fair, vibrant farm and food system, average citizens must wield this weapon and report what they’re seeing in the countryside.

More Information:

• Report Possible Illegal Market Activities/Aintitrust Issues to the MN Attorney General

• Call the MN Attorney General: 1-800-657-3787

• Ear to the Ground podcast interview with antitrust expert Austin Frerick

• LSP Press Release — Farmers to AG: Take Ac...

Scientist Kris Nichols finds the disconnect between food production and soil health “terrifying” and says the stakes are too high not to mend that break. So what are we waiting for? (2 of 2 parts)

More Information:

• Ear to the Ground No. 387 Interview with Kris Nichols (1 of 2 parts)

• LSP’s Soil Builders’ Web Page

• Kris Nichols’s Facebook Page

• Ear to the Ground Interview with Tom Cotter

• 2012 Ear to the Ground episode featuring Kris Nichols & Jay Fuhrer

• 2012 Land Stewardship Letter article on Burleigh County Soil Health Team

You can find LSP...

When farmers challenged what Kris Nichols had learned from her college textbooks, the soil microbiologist didn’t dismiss them — instead, she dug deeper into the world beneath our feet (1 of 2 parts).

More Information:

• Ear to the Ground No. 388 Interview with Kris Nichols (2 of 2 parts)

• LSP’s Soil Builders’ Web Page

• Kris Nichols’s Facebook Page

• Ear to the Ground Interview with Tom Cotter

• Ear to the Ground interview with Jay Fuhrer

• 2012 Ear to the Ground episode featuring Kris Nichols

• 2012 Land Stewardship Letter article on Burleigh County Soil

How a small, rural school district is taking a trial run at sourcing food from local farmers.

More Information:

• MDA Farm to School & Early Care Programs & Grants

• Report: Building the Farm to School Network in West Central Minnesota

• LSP’s Community-Based Food Systems Web Page

• Ear to the Ground 385: A Longer Local Lunch Season

• Ear to the Ground 322: Lunchroom Stewardship

Jeanine Bowman believes having locally produced food on her school’s menu shouldn’t be a special occasion — it should be a daily part of nourishing kids while supporting the farm economy.

More Information:

• MDA Farm to School & Early Care Programs & Grants

• Report: Building the Farm to School Network in West Central Minnesota

• LSP’s Community-Based Food Systems Web Page

• Ear to the Ground 386: A Farm to School Taste Test

• Ear to the Ground 322: Lunchroom Stewardship

Ag antitrust expert Austin Frerick sees the current food system as a mechanism for modern robber barons to treat rural communities as mere “extraction colonies.” But, he argues, changing how we eat isn’t enough — we need to disrupt how power is distributed all along the food chain (2 of 2 parts).

More Information:

• Austin Frerick’s website

• View video of Nov. 4, 2025, LSP Event Featuring Sonja Trom Eayrs & Austin Frerick: “Big Ag, Big Problems: A Panel on Rural Consolidation”

• Ear to the Ground podcast with Sonja Trom Eayrs: “Corporate Vs. Community”

Sonja Trom Eayrs started out writing about her own family’s fight against factory farms. She ended up telling a larger story of corporate capture of rural communities (1 of 2 parts).

More Information:

• Sonja Trom Eayrs’s website

• View video of Nov. 4, 2025, LSP Event Featuring Sonja Trom Eayrs & Austin Frerick: “Big Ag, Big Problems: A Panel on Rural Consolidation”

• Ear to the Ground episode with Austin Frerich: “Power Play”

LSP’s Local Democracy Challenge is a reminder that we can’t allow democracy to grow dormant between elections.

More Information:

• LSP’s Local Democracy Challenge Web Page

• Land Stewardship Action

• Ear to the Ground Podcast 341 Featuring Land Stewardship Action

Chris MacLeod came to Mill City hoping to source local grain while pursuing his passion for baking. When confronted with the reality of the export-driven commodity system, he doubled down on connecting with local farmers.

More Information:

• Laune Bread

• Baker’s Field Flour & Bread

• LSP’s Small Grains Web Page

• Ear to the Ground 379 with pioneer miller Gilbert Williams

• Ear to the Ground 377 with Sandhill Mill

• Summary of “Bringing Small Grains Back to Minnesota” Networking Meeting on Aug. 2, 2025, in Madison, Minn.

Amy Rager wasn’t thrilled about moving from the North Woods to the land of grass. But three decades later, she’s an impassioned advocate for this treeless biome.

More Information:

• Minnesota Master Naturalist Program

• Land Stewardship Letter review of Sea of Grass

• Ear to the Ground episode 258: Prairie’s Horizontal Grandeur

• LSP Soil Builders Web Page

You can find LSP Ear to the Ground podcast episodes on Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, YouTube, and other podcast platforms.

Gilbert Williams is a pioneer in processing local grains for local markets. His advice? Go stand in the field, put your name on the package, and tell your story.

More Information:

• Ear to the Ground 378 with Noreen Thomas

• Ear to the Ground 377 with Peter & Brittany Haugen

• Ear to the Ground 366 with Gary Zimmer

• Summary of “Bringing Small Grains Back to Minnesota” Networking Meeting on Aug. 2, 2025, in Madison, Minn.

• 2025 LSP Albert Lea Small Grains Workshop Presentations

• Meadowlark Farm & Mill

Noreen Thomas got into organic crop farming almost three decades ago as a way to produce healthy food and survive economically. Today, she’s the mentor she never had.

More Information

• Register for LSP’s “Bringing Small Grains Back to Minnesota” Networking Meeting on Aug. 2, 2025, in Madison, Minn.

• Doubting Thomas Farms

• 2025 LSP Albert Lea Small Grains Workshop Presentations

When Peter and Brittany Haugen sought to diversify their western Minnesota crop farm, they realized there was little infrastructure available to support small grains. So they forged their own link in the food chain by launching Sandhill Mill.

More Information

• Register for LSP’s “Bringing Small Grains Back to Minnesota” Networking Meeting on Aug. 2, 2025, in Madison, Minn.

• Sandhill Mill

• 2025 LSP Albert Lea Small Grains Workshop Presentations

One farmer says he benefits from grazing publicly-managed wildlife habitat. But what does a natural resource professional think about bringing bovines into a natural biome?

More Information:

• Hoosier Ridge Ranch

• LSP’s Grazing & Soil Health Web page

• MN DNR Whitewater Wildlife Management Area

From crunching the numbers to developing relationships with public and private landowners, Eric Heins of Hoosier Ridge Ranch isn’t afraid to question the status quo when it comes to grazing livestock.

More Information:

• Hoosier Ridge Ranch

• LSP’s Grazing & Soil Health Web page

LSP members and allies spoke out during the 2025 session of the Minnesota Legislature. It paid off in the form of support for local food markets, farmland access, and soil health.

More Information:

• Blog: Wrap-up of 2025 Legislative Session

• LSP’s State Policy Web Page

These are tumultuous times for immigrants, but COPAL’s Ryan Perez sees hope in grassroots organizing and making basic, human-centered connections.

More Information:

• COPAL

• Radio Jornalera

• LSP’s Justice & Stewardship Web Page

• LSP’s Long Range Plan: 2025-2030

The Wild Farm Alliance is out to prove that thriving wildlife habitat and working farmland are not mutually exclusive — in fact, they can make great partners.

More Information

• Wild Farm Alliance

• The Farm as Natural Habitat

• LSP’s Ear to the Ground 371: Avian Award

• LSP’s Ear to the Ground 370: Bending the Bird Curve

• LSP’s Ear to the Ground 275: Blurring the Bobolink Boundaries

The owners of Keewaydin Farms see birds as not only a source of natural pest control but as a sign they are doing something right.

More Information:

• Keewaydin Farms

• Wild Farm Alliance

• LSP’s Ear to the Ground 370: Bending the Bird Curve

• LSP’s Ear to the Ground 275: Blurring the Bobolink Boundaries

The feathered residents of America’s grasslands are in big trouble, but Audubon ecologist Krysten Zummo sees regenerative grazing as a way for bovines to benefit birds.

More Information:

• Audubon Conservation Ranching Program

• Krysten Zummo Contact Information

• LSP Grazing & Soil Health Page

• The Monitoring Tool Box

• Wild Farm Alliance

• Keewaydin Farms

• LSP’s Ear to the Ground 371: Avian Award

• LSP’s Ear to the Ground 275: Blurring the Bobolink Boundaries

Ka Zoua Berry says supporting a future generation of farmers who don’t fit the traditional Midwestern stereotype isn’t just about building a resilient farm and food system. It’s also about building resilient communities.

More Information:

• Big River Farms

• Emerging Farmers Conference

• Farmland Access Hub

• LSP Farmland Clearinghouse

An extractive economic system is decimating and dividing our rural communities. Now, more than ever, we need solidarity, says Cristina Ortiz.

More Information

• LSP’s Community-Based Food System Web Page

• LSP’s Justice & Stewardship Web Page

• LSP’s Policy Campaign Page

Mastering the market is no easy task for a cutting-edge perennial grain. What lessons have the staff at Forever Green learned from their work with Kernza?

More Information:

• Forever Green Initiative

• Blog: Don Wyse’s Land Grant Legacy

• Ear to the Ground 365: Perennial Pivot

• Ear to the Ground 229: Kernza’s Continuous Cover

• Wrap-Up of LSP’s 2025 Small Grains Workshop

• LSP Soil Health Web Page