Dirt Rich

Prescribed burning is an accessible, if intimidating, conservation and management tool for farms and private lands. This episode’s guests bring decades of first-hand experience of strategically and safely using fire to help meet their ecological goals.

The benefits of burning can compound: curbed tick or liver fluke populations can reduce herd mortality that would otherwise be a blow to your bottom line, for example. Minnesota ranc...

After returning to the family farm, Ethan Johnson opened Amo Creamery and farm store near Windom, Minnesota at the end of 2025. In this episode, he shares the dairy history of both his family and the region, his education and career, and how he was gradually drawn "like a magnet" back to the farm to build a community-tied creamery from the ground up.

 

Ethan Johnson, Amo Creamery

Mary Fischer, Southwest Community Organizer, Sustain...

Ryan Hough and his brother run a diversified crop and cattle operation in Barnesville, Minnesota. They began their “soil health journey” roughly 10 years ago, and are constantly learning and refining the ways they integrate livestock into their cropping system in order to build the health of their soil and profitability.

Kim Melton combines her background in agriculture with conservation through her work as the Soil Health Coordina...

Jonathan interviews Joel Barr of Abraham’s Table Farm in Sandstone, Minnesota. Since the time of recording, Joel has also joined SFA’s team of consultants as our Market Garden & Farm Management Systems Consultant!

Joel and his wife Megan have been farming for over a decade, producing vegetables, eggs, beef, and chicken for their community through a CSA and other direct markets across east central and the Metro areas of Minnesot...

"Nature is never done."

Buckthorn removal has been a long, uphill battle for folks managing their woodlands and prairies – whether it be for recreation, farming, or aesthetics. And buckthorn is just one species in a much larger brush management problem that we see across Minnesota and the Midwest.

Today’s roundtable of guests bring expertise in ecological restoration, forestry, silvopasture, and agriculture. They'll discuss the his...

Planning to host an event on your farm can quickly become complicated, even as a one-time or annual occasion. Jerry Ford (SFA) and Brett Olson (Renewing the Countryside) give experienced guidance on site planning, food and health regulations, risk management and liability, ticketing, vendors and more! At the very least, you're going to learn where not to put a port-a-potty.

Resources:

Jerry Ford - jerry@sfa-mn.org

Brett Olson - bre...

Jared Luhman returns to the mic to interview Bruce Tiffany, a fourth-generation row crop farmer in Redwood County, Minnesota. Bruce knows those rolling hills along the Redwood River intimately: he has farmed over 54 seasons there. He currently grows soy, corn, and rye.

Motivated by a desire to minimize inputs and to do right by previous and future generations, Bruce has shifted his practices to minimize tillage and keep a living ro...

Dan Kittredge grew up on a homestead with a family deeply engaged in the organic movement. Over the years, he worked on farms across the globe and learned from permaculture, biodynamic, agroecology, indigenous, conventional, and microbiological perspectives.

With a foundation in both the practical and the philosophical, he created the Bionutrient Food Association (BFA) in 2010, who makes it their mission to "increase quality in the...

Two farmers on the SFA team share what they've learned over several years of operating CSAs and selling at farmers' markets.

Dan Zimmerli of Cedar Crate Farm (Waldorf) and Lauren Barry of Dancing Gnome Farm (Wabasha) talk about how they've grown their businesses, the tech that helps them day-to-day, and how they design their farm stands at the market to boost sales and build relationships with customers.

 

Dan Zimmerli, SFA Special...

Click here to learn more and register for the upcoming workshop with Charlotte Smith.    Charlotte Smith swore she would never return to farming after a very difficult family farm bankruptcy while growing up. Spoiler: After some time working in the corporate world, she started a farm in 2009. She found that the time management, hiring, and interpersonal skills she had learned also really benefited her farm business. Others noticed ...

Dan Kittredge grew up on a homestead with a family deeply engaged in the organic movement. Over the years, he worked on farms across the globe and learned from permaculture, biodynamic, agroecology, indigenous, conventional, and microbiological perspectives.

With a foundation in both the practical and the philosophical, he created the Bionutrient Food Association (BFA) in 2010, who makes it their mission to "increase quality in the...

Derek Schmitz has never dreamt of being anything other than a farmer. He also really doesn't like doing field work. An adaptively managed, perennial grazing dairy just makes sense. 

In this conversation Schmitz shares how fellow dairy farmers helped him get started, and how genetics, observation and building his own farm team through the Minnesota Dairy Initiative have been key to his success -- and has even reduced his labor by ab...

Jeff Duchene is a Grazing Specialist for the Minnesota NRCS, which offers both financial and technical assistance to producers to help them meet their land management goals and address their natural resource concerns.

In conversation with host Jonathan Kilpatrick, Duchene shares how his formal education combined with years of learning directly from producers has been foundational in his career: "I think every producer I've worked w...

Five SFA farm consultants from across Minnesota discuss how they are approaching and planning ahead for drought conditions on their varying grazing operations. While conditions have changed since this conversation was recorded in early June 2023, their goals and decision-making strategies are evergreen.

Listeners are welcome to reach out with questions. Drop us a line! SFA also offers our members on-farm coaching and consulting. Ge...

Jonathan Kilpatrick and Jared Luhman return to the mic to explore farm financial health.

Doing a thorough business analysis can help you clearly identify specifically where your profits and losses lie across your enterprises, and in turn help you make confident decisions for your farm’s future. In their experience, the time you take to get a handle on your numbers usually pays itself back quickly in labor and input costs.

The pair ...

We’re switching it up today! Jonathan Kilpatrick moves into the host seat and interviews Jared Luhman about the history of farming in his family and about his time working for Sustainable Farming Association.

A pivotal moment for the trajectory of the family farm came when a visiting student told them they were working too hard. The listening and learning (and traveling!) that followed laid the groundwork for how Jared and his fath...

In 2022, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) opened the state's first Emerging Farmers Office. Lillian Otieno and Assistant Commissioner Patrice Bailey of the MDA Commissioner’s Office share how it came to be, the value it brings to our agricultural landscape, and the impacts they are seeing.

SFA’s Executive Director Lucinda Winter hosts this discussion, exploring the connections with SFA’s work and how individuals can pl...

Organic dairy grazier Angie Walter shares her experience using PaddockTrac, a grazing tool being developed by the University of Missouri. Angie's family runs a 100-cow organic dairy in Villard, Minn., grazing 80-100 acres at any given time. Theirs and 12 other Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship farms are piloting the PaddockTrac through an NRCS cooperative agreement.

The PaddockTrac device, which is in the prototype phase, mounts to the ...

We're back! Dirt Rich kicks off its fourth season with the second part of Jared Luhman's interview with Dan Zimmerli (check out part one here). The two get into the business management side of the farm -- employees, task tracking, data management and record keeping -- and how the Zimmerlis have leveraged it all to improve efficiency, profitability, and quality of life for them and their staff.

Dan and his wife operate Cedar Crate F...