As a landowner, have you thought about the long-term benefits of soil building on your land? As a farmer, would you like to think more long-term about soil building on land that you rent? Building your soils is a win-win situation for both landowners and farmland renters. The value of the land, its productivity, its resilience when exposed to bad weather, as well as its resistance to erosion, will increase, benefitting all parties. Building soil health is a great common goal, but it can take a little work to get both parties to the table and to make conservation practices financially viable. Join us May 22 in Hoffman to learn about the following topics to help start the conversation of how to make changes on rented land:  

• Soil health basics and what that means in context of your farmland asset, water quality and climate change.

• How do we enhance the productive value of farmland? What are local farmers doing to improve soil health? What works?

• Balancing short-term returns with longer term investment in farmland as a productive asset.

• Creating opportunities for young farmers on the land, conservation leases, and how to approach challenging conversations with tenants or landlords.

The day will include: a presentation from Kristin Brennan, assistant state soil scientist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; a question-and-answer panel with regional farmers and landowners who have made long-term investments in soil health; and tools to help you learn more about programs and opportunities, as well as a chance to practice tackling difficult conversations.

If you are unable to attend this event but are interested in later events, or events in other regions of the state, please let us know.  We will be continuing to work with landowners in the future and would love to hear about what you need! You can visit LSP’s website for more information on conservation leases.

The cost for the day is $15, which will include lunch. To RSVP, please register here or contact the Land Stewardship Project’s Robin Moore at 320-269-2105 or via e-mail.