As sustainable farming takes root, green thumbs get greener
By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
ALTURA, Minn. — The 160-acre Kreidermacher family farm, once a traditional dairy operation, has become an incubator for sustainable farming methods.
Ed and Joyce Kreidermacher, now 63, bought the farm when they married in 1967. Over the years, they shifted from cows to hogs to growing flowers. Their son Eric, 33, is using environmentally friendly techniques and making the farm less dependent on oil.
Biomass boilers heat the greenhouses. Ash from the boilers fertilizes fields. Watering systems were designed for conservation,... Read More
By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
ALTURA, Minn. — The 160-acre Kreidermacher family farm, once a traditional dairy operation, has become an incubator for sustainable farming methods.
Ed and Joyce Kreidermacher, now 63, bought the farm when they married in 1967. Over the years, they shifted from cows to hogs to growing flowers. Their son Eric, 33, is using environmentally friendly techniques and making the farm less dependent on oil.
Biomass boilers heat the greenhouses. Ash from the boilers fertilizes fields. Watering systems were designed for conservation,... Read More
Tim Carroll logging with draft horses – photo by Ronnie Hartman“Those loggers had left a mess on his property,” explained... Read More
Barbara Norman in her blueberry patch. – photo by Joan Benjamin.The Diversity Research and Education Grant Program is a new NCR-SARE grant program. Its purpose is to fund people and/or projects that can help NCR-SARE reach and work with underserved audiences to improve... Read More
Despite the cold Wisconsin winters, Julie Maro and her husband recently were able to establish a small hatchery in Western Wisconsin, hatching a unique breed of chicken that comes from parent stock raised on certified organic feed.
Although Maro and her husband had been raising meat chickens at Coon Creek Family Farm, they had a strong desire to establish the first Wisconsin-based hatchery to produce organically raised chicks specifically bred for a pasture-based poultry production system. The breed they selected for their project was the Corndel Cross developed by Timothy Shell of Mt. Solon, Virginia.... Read More
Just off of Highway 77, running north from El Dorado, Kansas, runs seventy three acres of agritourism property which is a part of Carroll and Becky Walters’ family farm and pumpkin patch, Walters’ Pumpkin Patch.For almost 20 years, the Walters have been growing and selling pumpkins at their U-Pick patch in Northern Butler County. They host more than 20,000 visitors during their six weeks of operation during September and October. Not long ago, they had been interested in adding another attraction for their pumpkin season, as well as new products and an added attraction to market to the public... Read More
Mary Holz-Clause, Margaret Smith, Terry Gompert, and Laura Paine's 2007 Research and Education Project was featured by Beef Magazine.
Their project aims to work with beef producers to collect accurate, current production costs and to document methods, techniques, and the knowledge contributing to success of these businesses.
To read more about their project, visit the SARE reporting web site here.
Sustainability Showdown
Oct 1, 2008
By Loretta Sorensen
Even though there's a demand for grass-finished and organic grass-finished beef, is it cost effective... Read More
