Close to the Ground
Keeping You Up-to-Date on the
Art and Science of On-Farm Monitoring
Summer 1999 • Vol.1, No.2
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Close to the Ground
Keeping You Up-to-Date on the Summer 1999 • Vol.1, No.2 |
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Writing it Down
Welcome to our second issue of Close to the Ground. With the summer timing of this newsletter, it is appropriate that there are bountiful results from spring and
early summer monitoring efforts.
This issue presents a few of the possibilities that a serious—or not so serious—look at one’s landscape affords. For example, a group of farmers in western Minn. took to golfing its way
through a pasture that members have been monitoring for species diversity for several years.
The efforts of a new group formed in the Sand Creek watershed south of Minneapolis is included, as is a piece on water quality research being conducted on eight farm sites. And the value of "writing
it down" is illustrated by two people who do that very differently!
Landowners, both farmers and non-farmers, who think that long-term observations help them to make better short- and long-term decisions about their land wrote the pieces you’ll find here.
We welcome your words, pictures and ideas for sharing the ways you’re being intentional about the land you live on and around. Let us hear from you! Contact:
Close to the Ground
Land Stewardship Project
2200 4th St.
White Bear Lake, MN 55110
Or call: (651)653-0618; fax: (651)653-0589; email: lspwbl@landstewardshipproject.org
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A Spring Stroll along Sand Creek
By early April of this year dairyman Dave Minar had cleared about a quarter of the trees he plans to cut along Sand Creek. His goal is to open up the canopy along the eroded
stream bank, and his inspiration is the accidental experiment of Ralph Lentz. Lentz is a grass farmer near Lake City, Minn., whose unfinished fencing project some decades ago led to the discovery that
grazing cows can enhance stream bank stabilization.
Minar’s goal is to put more vegetation on the banks of Sand Creek in order to enhance the ecological complexity and quality of the creek and its water. He wants to run his heifers down along the
water’s edge, too, during monitored grazing periods so that the ground is worked but not damaged.
During a spring walk along a portion of Sand Creek on the Minars’ Cedar Summit Farm outside New Prague, Minn., members of the Sand Creek Watershed Team took an early look at Minar’s fledgling
efforts and talked about his goals. Accompanying the group was Larry Gates of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, who called Minar’s plans "judicious management." The group,
primarily farmers in the spring, has since expanded to include others who have concerns about the biological and aesthetic well-being of Sand Creek.
Minar recalled that when he was a child the creek did not run year-round as it does now. Agricultural drain tiles account for the increased flow, and the resulting change in water dynamics has contributed
to heavy sedimentation, contamination and outright reshaping of the creek to sometimes dangerous proportions. Minar seeks to address these environmentally unhealthy conditions by encouraging brome and
reed canary grass in place of bare soil and insufficient sunlight.
At one oxbow Minar showed the group a 1991 fence line that now reaches over the current stream. "What should I do?" he asked. Gates compared the natural meandering of a healthy stream to the
twists and turns of our human guts, and suggested anchoring the bank with trees now stranded mid-stream. A team member who is an excavator volunteered his labor and equipment and the team is now pursuing
a plan for bioengineering Minar’s oxbow into a safer shape.
"It’s an experiment," Minar said of the selective logging now underway. And not to worry about the downed wood. The box elder went into a bonfire, but the oak will eventually become his
family room floor. Sustainable agricultural practices come in many shapes and sizes.
Dave Minar can be reached at his family farm, telephone: (612) 758-3450. For more information on the activities of the Sand Creek Watershed Team, ask Dave or call Caroline van Schaik at LSP’s
White Bear Lake office at (651) 653-0618.
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Pasture Golf—A Foray into Forage Monitoring
by Audrey Arner
Author’s note: Monitoring does not stand alone. Through monitoring, we can discover if the results of our decision making are really getting us toward where we say we want to be headed. The early warning monitoring that is fostered by assuming that we may not, in fact, have made a right decision, attunes us to looking for indicators that will keep us on course.
We monitor with respect to whatever goal setting we have done. This may be related to the quality of our lives, crop or livestock health, financial condition, or how effectively ecosystem processes are functioning as a result of our management.
Monitoring requires developing observation skills and discipline. The fulfillment experienced from being better informed and better able to make planning adjustments is reward in itself, but as have learned repeatedly in community organizing: how well we learn when we’re having fun!
The Chippewa Whole Farm Planning and Monitoring Team has been monitoring a pasture that Don and Dan Struxness have rented at the Easy Bean Farm for the last four years. We
have bar graph data on species mix and soil cover. The data support our observations of progress toward the part of the goal that strives for dense plant spacing, lush vegetation, and diversity of plant
species. Although the data have been informative, the process has not really engaged other team members to do this kind of data collection in their own pastures.
Then Don Struxness had an idea: pasture golf!
It is my understanding that golf emerged from those Scottish pastures that were kept close cropped enough by roving flocks that one’s golf ball was easily retrieved. Similarly, the early May landscape
in the Struxness pasture was a perfectly inviting golf opportunity.
Don’s original design had nine holes plotted through four paddocks, across the river, and through the spring-emerged alfalfa. But when we got right down to it, this is how it worked:
1. We collected a hodge-podge of clubs and the Montevideo country club donated golf balls.
2. There is no flag and no hole. "Okay, everybody hit a ball over there somewhere." What?! This exercise in random activity without a target emphasized that having a goal helps a lot when deciding
if you are moving toward it. Golfing became easier and infinitely more gratifying when we knew where we were aiming.
3. Keep your eyes on the ball. "Now that we have a direction, hit toward the goal. At every place your ball lands tell the reporter the species of the nearest plant." This method rewards folks
who are just learning to swing, do not hit very far or hit way over par. The more monitoring points the better the data!
This is the tally for species diversity on a pasture converted from cropland on a challenging soil type on the banks of the Chippewa River on April 20, 1999:
31.9% alfalfa
12.5% dandelion
13.8% red clover
4.2% brome
11.1% orchard grass
22.2% quack grass
1.2% milkweed
1.2% bull thistle
1.2% Russian thistle
We plan to golf across the paddocks again next April. We might include the distance to the nearest living plant or whether the ball lands on living plant material, litter, or bare soil.
We hope that participants will be encouraged to monitor their own pastures at various times of the year. It’s easy when you’re having fun!
The Chippewa River Whole Farm Planning and Monitoring Team is in its fourth summer of monitoring various aspects of its eight team farms. The team works under the direction of LSP’s office in
Montevideo, Minn. Audrey Arner is the program director and can be reached by mail: 103 W. Nichols, Montevideo, MN 56265, or by phone: (320) 269-2105.
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Monitoring the impacts of farming practices on water quality in the Minnesota River basin
By Christopher Iremonger
Farm management decisions have a direct impact on the quality of both surface and ground water. In a cooperative effort between University of Minnesota scientists and farmers
in the Chippewa and Sand Creek catchments, eight field-sized watersheds have been selected as research sites to study sustainable farming practices and their impacts on the environment, especially water
quality.
Using the automatic water samplers shown in these photos, our initial findings indicate that sustainable farming systems contribute less sediment, phosphorus, and nitrogen to the environment. This suggests
that low input sustainable farming has a less detrimental impact on water quality and the overall environment than more conventional farming systems.
An alternative is that agricultural chemicals and fertilizers leach into the ground water and contaminate wells, or run off field surfaces with top soil into rivers and lakes. One noticeable effect is
algae blooms or eutrophication caused by elevated levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in ponds and lakes.
Decaying algae lower dissolved oxygen levels to the point where aquatic life can no longer survive. The result is Hypoxia, low oxygen levels, which has become a serious problem in the Gulf of Mexico
as a direct result of agricultural land use in the Mississippi and Minnesota river basins.
Christopher Iremonger is a UM soil scientist and member of the Sustainable Farming Systems Project team. He may be reached by telephone at: (612) 625-3717.
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Reflections from the Twisted Horn Ranch
By Bev Struxness
Lying in the middle of the kitchen table was a small piece of notebook paper containing a list of ideas for monitoring:
The list was made in preparation for the Chippewa River Whole Farm Planning and Monitoring Team monthly meeting. The focus of the meeting was to be the development of monitoring plans.
As members of the team, Don and I have written our vision and goals, which include quality of life, production, and future landscape. Past monitoring for our farm has been related to production and financial
return. But what about quality of life? The term is used frequently. How is it measured?
With encouragement from team leaders, I have started to keep a journal related to quality of life issues. Some entries talk about feelings: satisfaction, frustration, thankfulness, concern, hope. Journal
entries also indicate ways I’m spending my time. Sometimes, I talk about work, farm related and off the farm. Other times, I write about hours spent with family and friends, in the church or the
community.
Even though the "journaling" covers only a few weeks so far, it’s already interesting and informative. It gives us snapshots and insights that help to determine progress and growth relating
to our quality of life goals.
Bev and her husband, Don, live and farm near Milan, Minn., on the family farm where Don’s parents and grandparents lived before them. They strive to live a life centered around their family,
their church and their community. The Struxnesses can be reached by mail: 14015 Hwy. 40 NW, Milan, MN 56262, or by telephone: (320)734-4877.
A New Urban Garden and Gardener!
by Caroline van Schaik
It has been a long, long time since I have had land and the time to grow food—at the same time! Last fall, my husband and I moved into a house in St. Paul with
lots of trees, off-street parking, and a sunny space that begged for vegetables.
It did not take our respective soils degrees to know that the soil beneath the sod would be a mystery this first year. Not that I soil sampled. But I did begin recording garden activities in mid-April
when I planted snow peas and lettuce. My notes tell me they took a long time to germinate, and more masterful gardeners can likely tell me why.
Frankly, I have a lot of "why’s" to account for this winter! I am a little discouraged about some of them. I can’t find one of my favorite resource books, and my notes leave a lot
to be desired.
Still, I have some notes. They remind me that I forgot to record our first potato harvest, which would have been helpful as I re-learn maturity rates. They tell me when to stop seeding radishes unless
I like woody, but spicy, results. And I see that I planted muskmelons two whole months ago and by mid-August don’t see fruit even forming.
I like taking notes. Viewing the world through the written word has long helped me to sort it out and understand it, and the record serves me well when memory fails. Give the potatoes a wider bed, plant
garlic in the fall… If I didn’t have a note reminding me, I’d forget. I may be haphazard in my urban gardening, but I am not casual about trying to produce good food in a good manner.
So while I’ll do my notes differently next year, I sure will do them somehow.
Caroline van Schaik is a staff member of LSP, and will accept all gardening advice at the White Bear Lake office, telephone (651) 653-0618.
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