The Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program (MAWQCP) is a voluntary opportunity for farmers and agricultural landowners to take the lead in implementing conservation practices that protect our water. Those who implement and maintain approved farm management practices will be certified and, in turn, obtain regulatory certainty for a period of ten years.
Through this program, certified producers receive:
- Regulatory certainty: Certified producers are deemed to be in compliance with any new water quality rules or laws during the period of certification
- Recognition: Certified producers may use their status to promote their business as protective of water quality
- Priority for technical assistance: Producers seeking certification can obtain specially designated technical and financial assistance to implement practices that promote water quality
Through this program, the public receives:
- Assurance that certified producers are using conservation practices to protect Minnesota’s lakes, rivers and streams
As we know, water quality and soil health go hand-in-hand. To meet some of the more than 900 producers in this program, you’ll want to visit the
Story Map,
where three of the operations highlighted are run by NACD Soil Health Champions –
Jerry
and
Nancy Ackermann
,
Ryan Benedict
and
Lori Cox
.
Although many more of our Champions in Minnesota are certified under this program, the Story Map highlights just a few. In total, this program boasts 625,000 acres as certified.
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We would like to continue to collect a list of books and authors that have been good resources for you as Soil Health Champions as you look to address the different challenges you face on your soil health journey or look to take things to the next level. Here, we are providing you with a brief description of the book and a link to the listings for more information. Please be sure to send your book recommendations to NACD North Central Region Representative
Beth Mason
at
beth-mason@nacdnet.org
.
By Brad Lancaster
Turn water scarcity into water abundance!
Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1, 3rd Edition
is the best-selling, award-winning guide on how to conceptualize, design and implement life-enhancing water-, sun-, wind- and shade-harvesting systems for your home, landscape and community. This book enables you to assess your on-site resources, gives you a diverse array of strategies to maximize their potential, and empowers you with guiding principles to create an integrated, multi-functional plan specific to your site and needs.
By Brad Lancaster
Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2
is a how-to guide, enabling you to “plant the rain” by creating water-harvesting “earthworks” or “rain gardens.” Earthworks are simple, inexpensive strategies and landforms that passively harvest multiple sources of free, on-site water including rainfall, stormwater runoff, air conditioning condensate, and greywater within “living tanks” of soil and vegetation. The plants then pump the water back out in the form of beauty, food, shelter, wildlife habitat, timber and forage, while controlling erosion, reducing downstream flooding, dropping utility costs, increasing soil fertility, and improving water and air quality.
By Bill Zeedyk and Van Clothier
Let the Water Do the Work
is an important contribution to riparian restoration. By "thinking like a creek," one can harness the regenerative power of floods to reshape stream banks and rebuild floodplains along gullied stream channels.
Induced Meandering
is an artful blend of the natural sciences - geomorphology, hydrology and ecology - which govern channel forming processes.
Induced Meandering
directly challenges the dominant paradigm of river and creek stabilization by promoting the intentional erosion of selected banks while fostering deposition of eroded materials on an evolving floodplain. The river self-heals as the growth of native riparian vegetation accelerates the meandering process.
By Richard Perkins
Regenerative Agriculture
offers a clear and pragmatic approach to designing, installing and managing profitable small farms, and is built around Richard Perkins’s tireless work to restore the dignity to rural stewardship through intelligent, human-scale farming.
It provides a deep look into the ecological, practical, personal and financial realms of making small farms work.
Regenerative farming restores soils and benefits local customers and communities whilst turning a healthy profit for the diligent farmer. With
Regenerative Agriculture
in hand, you get a jump start on farming for the future.
By Greg Judy
Comeback Farms
covers multi-species grazing; developing parasite-resistant hair sheep flocks and grass-genetic cattle; and how to select, train and care for livestock guardian dogs. It includes High Density Grazing (HDG) fencing techniques, diagrams for HDG fencing and paddock moves; and how to calve with HDG.
By following Judy’s examples, you’ll keep your neighbors talking and wondering how you keep your fields green and your livestock grazing year-round. In the process, you’ll be pocketing your profits.
By Greg Judy
No Risk Ranching, Custom Grazing on Leased Land
describes how he found and managed his first and subsequent leases. He offers a detailed guide for other graziers to follow on how to find idle land to lease; calculate the cost of a lease; draft and write a land lease contract (with examples included); develop good water and portable fencing on leased land; promote wildlife and improve timber stands; keep accurate records and more.
By Allan Savory
Fossil fuels and livestock grazing are often targeted as major culprits behind climate change and desertification. But Allan Savory, cofounder of the Savory Institute, begs to differ. The bigger problem, he warns, is our mismanagement of resources. Livestock grazing is not the problem; it’s how we graze livestock. If we don’t change the way we approach land management, irreparable harm from climate change could continue long after we replace fossil fuels with environmentally benign energy sources.
Holistic management is a systems-thinking approach for managing resources developed by Savory decades ago after observing the devastation of desertification in his native Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
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VIRTUAL FIELD DAYS
IN IDAHO
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The University of Idaho Extension, in collaboration with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), is holding a series of Soil Health Virtual Field Days.
Each field day consists of a recorded interview and time in the field with the producer. Later, the producer sits down for a moderated Q&A with a virtual audience via Zoom. The Q&A is also recorded and posted on YouTube as a “part two” of the field day.
NACD Soil Health Champions
Lance Griff
and
Todd Ballard
are just two of the producers who have hosted virtual field days in this series.
To date, the topics include no-till corn, cover crops and direct seeded beans, and organic management for soil health.
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TUNE IN:
PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS
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COVER CROP STRATEGIES
From
Lessiter Media
comes a great resource focused on cover crops called "
Cover Crop Strategies
.” This website contains many resources for anyone interested in exploring the use of cover crops. Through a weekly newsletter, various articles, webinars, videos, blogs and podcasts, there is a medium available for just about everyone.
The latest podcast episode was released on July 8, titled "
Grazing Systems Need Soil Health Improvement Too."
Grazing systems can also gain from the soil health benefits offered by cover crops, according to Matt Poore, Extension Livestock Coordinator and Ruminant Nutrition Specialist with North Carolina State University. In this podcast, Poore discusses using annuals to improve soil health in grazing systems for livestock. (1 hour, 11 minutes)
THE PEOPLE OF SOIL HEALTH
"
The People of Soil Health"
is a podcast produced by the Soil Health Partnership (SHP), which provides a direct connection into a network of soil health professionals who are focused on the on-farm economic and environmental benefits of soil health.
Host
John Mesko
, SHP senior director, interviews the best in the agricultural and environmental industries to discuss soil health practices and management systems, issues facing farmers, and insights from soil data sets.
Be sure to subscribe to these informative podcasts and catch up on all the episodes.
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2019 Cover Crop Planting Report
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The
Soil Health Partnership
conducted a cover crop survey with their network of farmers regarding the use of cover crop on trial sites in the fall of 2019.
The objective is to do this annually and use the data to further analyze how cover crops impact soil health, agronomic outcomes and farmer profitability.
The survey had 82 respondents from the following states: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
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NACD would like to explore the opportunity to hold a
Research Webinar Series
. This series would focus on the research and experiences of you as Champions.
Whether your research has been formal or informal, we would like to offer you the chance to share your experiences and outcomes with your peers and then offer a time for questions and discussion.
If you would be willing to share on one of these webinars, please contact
Beth Mason
at
beth-mason@nacdnet.org
or 317-946-4463 with your name and the topic you would like to discuss. Webinars can be as simple as sharing pictures or as elaborate as having a PowerPoint slideshow or showing a video.
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Tune Into "Your Land and the Long View: Working with Farmers to Protect Your Investment" Webinar Series
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Registration for this three-part webinar series includes access to the live webinars, leasing templates and other resources, as well as the webinar recordings. All times are Eastern.
July 14, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Protect Your Investment with Soil Health
Steve Groff
will talk about soil health for landowners – what it is, why it’s important, and how to increase it. (Recorded)
July 21, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Win-Win Strategies and Tools
Sarah Everhart
will discuss how to communicate with your farmer and how to develop a simple lease that will help to ensure that you achieve common goals.
July 28, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Bringing it All Together
Groff and Everhart will answer common questions about soil health and communication between farmers and landowners and how to overcome barriers to better land management.
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J
uly 30 – 31, 2020
Soil Health Institute (SHI)’s Annual Meeting – Virtual
This year’s theme is
Soil Health: The Foundation for Regenerative Agriculture
, advancing the opportunity to address climate change, water quality, food production, biodiversity and many other pressing issues by improving soil health.
The conference is a free, virtual event, but registration is required. Learn more at
SHI's website
.
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Promote Your
Next Soil Health Event
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Do you have any upcoming soil health events? Are you looking for an upcoming soil health event to attend?
Both NACD and the Soil Health Institute have opened their events calendars for folks to post various soil health events whether they are local, state, national or even international.
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Need a Reason to Celebrate?
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July 25
– NACD's Birthday and National Day of the Cowboy (fourth Saturday in July)
August
– Water Quality Month
August 15
– World Honey Bee Day (third Saturday in August)
September
– Chicken Month
September
– Honey Month
September 4
– National Wildlife Day
September 7
– Labor Day (first Monday in September)
September 26
– National Hunting and Fishing Day (fourth Saturday in September)
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