Jim Chamberlin and his wife Audra live on 107 acres in Bay Lake Township, Crow Wing County where they manage a small woodlot and raise poultry, hogs, horses, a large garden, and nine children. They experiment with alternative production methods and practices including, but
not limited to, a small alley cropping system incorporating Keyline water catchment, a Permaculture orchard based on the Ecological Classification System Native Plant Community, and rotational grazing of all thier livestock. They also operate a small maple sugar bush, harvest and process wild rice, and raise shitake mushrooms. He works as a Forestry Technican for the Crow Wing Soil and Water Conservation District.

Jim plants about 1/2 acre a year using a permaculture based polyculture system coined "Porkaculture". He pastures hogs in summer, mulch rows in the fall, and grows a winter cover crop of rye or winter wheat between rows. Then in the spring he plants rows of the "three sisters" (corn, beans, and squash or other vine crops) into the mulched rows. Oats and field turnips, buckwheat, or other cover crops are planted between the rows after plowing down the winter cover crop. After the vegetables are harvested in the fall the hogs are rotated through the field to clean up the residue and work the soil.  The field is then planted to a grass legume pasture mix for the following season. Fields are on a three year rotation. 

For more details and pictures please see Jim's presentation here.

Contact information:
Jim Chamberlin
Island Lake Farm
23111 State Hwy 18
Deerwood, MN 56444
islandlakefarm@brainerd.net
Phone: 218-764-3020

Andy Hart, his wife and his parents farm on their family farm. They have four children who
love growing up on a farm. Andy and his family raise corn, soybeans, hay, sweet corn, lima beans and peas. They have been involved with conservation work on their farm for several years including cover cropping, CRP, and installation of terraces and grass waterways. They use minimum till,
no-till, and strip-till farming practices.

This is how Andy describes his farming practices it in his ownwords: "Our overall goal in our farming operation is to be good stewards of the land that we have been blessed with. We want
to leave our farm to the next generation in as good or better condition than we have had the privilege of farming it."

Andy and his family are working to accomplish this goal by reducing soil erosion, reducing tillage and trying to improve the soil by adding more cover crops. Cover crops build organic matter, reduce nitrate movement in the soil and increase crop residue on our fields. For several years they have been planting cover crops with a grain drill in our sweet corn and pea fields in July
and August, and they have seen good results. They felt their next step was to get a cover crop established on the corn and soybean fields at the right time and without a lot of expense.

They are using a helicopter to aerial seed winter rye into fields of standing row crops. The helicopter easily negotiates the small fields and rolling terrain in southeastern Minnesota. The row crops seeded are field corn, sweet corn, and soybeans. We believe that we can establish the winter rye cover crop from two to six weeks earlier than normal by aerial seeding into crops before they are harvested.

The winter rye is seeded at a rate of 75 lb/A between August 15 and September 1. Harvest of the row crops will occurs from four to six weeks later. Soybeans are usually harvested the first two weeks of October and field corn for grain is harvested after that.  Winter rye has been an excellent cover crop for us because it grows well in the fall before it over winters, and it grows rapidly the following spring.

Click here to check out Andy's website that has pictures of the cover crop work he has done in the past, and a presentation here about a cover crops project Andy took part.

Andy received two cover crop grants though the Minnesota Dept of Ag., Green book program. Click here to learn about the program.

Contact information:
Andy Hart
Elgin, MN
Hart@starband.net

Carmen Fernholz

Carmen has been using cover crops for almost 30 years. In fact, they have been part of his farming management piece since he started farming. Most of his covers are used in conjunction with small grain management. All of his small grains which include wheat, oats, barley, flax and dried field peas are all underseeded with either a red clover or an alfalfa. These underseedings are then used as covers late into the fall or as cash forage crops for ensuing years. Alfalfa as a three year perennial and cash crop also is a big part of his crop rotation system. The majority of the cover crops are also used as green manure supplements. Most of the time the cover is used as a green manure plow down and then serves as a cover for the winter months. Carmen is also beginning to see signs that not only do the covers provide some soil nutrient building benefits, but also provide a great microenvironment for enhancing weed seed predation from field mice and other small insects.

Contact information
Carmen Fernholz
2484 Hwy 40
Madison, Minnesota 56256
Phone: 320-598-3010
E-mail: fernholz@frontiernet.net

Norm Erickson

Norm is hosting a Hazelnut Field Day on 9/13 as part of the 3rd Crop Walk & Talks, download the brochure here  

Norm and Mary Erickson started a hazelnut farm in Lake City in 2004. They built a machine shed/shop, root cellar and a high end earth bermed greenhouse with two seasonal thermal energy storage systems for heat. The greenhouse will grow hazelnut seedlings for market, and the field will
produce nuts for in-shell and shelled markets. Hazelnut kernels contain 60% oil suitable for food and biodiesel fuel. The high protein press cake can be used for animal feed or pellet stove fuel.

Here is a description of Norm's experience with cover crops, in his own words:

The land is slightly rolling flood plain land that had been cropped with corn and soybeans for decades. Soil tests showed very low to trace levels of all essential nutrients. We decided to establish our bushes in a clean field, and to decide on a ground cover later. We used a 3-pt rototiller to shallow till between the rows (10/15 foot aisles) and glyphosate within the
rows to control weeds. We also mulched all bushes with wood chips, about one silage fork-load per bush.

We have had no problems with mice and very minor deer predation. We planted dogwoods and willows and are placing them around the field in the belief that they will become the preferred browse for deer.

In the second year it became obvious that rototilling eliminated any vestiges of soil structure. You could spit into the field and cause erosion. We tried hairy vetch as a nitrogen fixing cover in 2005, but quickly found that it was as poorly behaved as crown vetch on the landscape. It smothered
the little bushes, and subsequent control work often caused hazelnut mortality.

In 2006 we planted a mixture of perennial rye lawn grass, Kura clover, and white Dutch clover in mid summer into three different areas. They all established well and all have helped to suppress weeds. It is too early to determine the competitive effect on the hazelnuts, though it appears as if the perennial rye goes dormant in hot, dry weather, making it less competitive, though perhaps less effective as a weed suppressant.

Because our soil is low in organic material, we broadcast winter rye in part of the field in the fall of 2006. It germinated and in the spring of 2007 it exploded, seeming to go from inches to feet high overnight (not true, of course). We waited too long to cut it with the result that: the little hazelnut bushes became invisible in three foot high headed-out winter rye. The stems hardened off and grain heads matured and reseeded. The aisles had to be mowed, disked a couple of times and rototilled to work in the stems. Weed whacking within the rows to remove  the rye was very
time consuming, and brought to mind the benefits of drilling over broadcast seeding.

In 2007 we also let wild purslane "own a couple of aisles" to see how it would work as a cover crop. It grew to about six inches deep and was quite effective in weed suppression. Its drawbacks were sensitivity to traffic damage and dieback in late summer. Because purslane is a popular vegetable in Europe for salads and soups, and is highest in Omega-3 lipids, we planted about 1600 lineal feet of domesticated French Green Purslane in June 2008. It germinated and grew well until it was about ready for a first picking/cutting in mid-July. Then in the space of a few days virtually all of the plants lost leaves, died, drooped and otherwise looked horrible. It seems that a sawfly squadron bombed the field with eggs and the stems had little white grubs tunneling everywhere. We are seeking a Plan B purslane. The wild purslane was not similarly affected.

In 2008 we also seeded more perennial lawn rye grass, seeded more white Dutch clover and planted buckwheat. The buckwheat was broadcast into freshly tilled soil and resulted in uneven germination. We tilled the buckwheat in at about six weeks and reseeded a late season cover crop, again broadcasting the seed, and then rolling it for better soil contact. If all goes as planned, we will rototill the buckwheat in late September and plant winter rye again. It is clearly beneficial to have ground cover for erosion control and hope to see long term benefits derived from
increased soil humus.

Our most recent new plantings were into an established brome/timothy/alfalfa hay field. We control competition with wood mulch and glyphosate.

Everything we do is experimental...!

Contact information:
Norman Erickson
Rochester, MN
E-mail: norme2@charter.net

Wood chip mulched hazelnut in hay field	Hazelnut seedling with wood chip mulch
Seeding of perennial lawn rye grasses	Kura clover year 2 beat up by mowing
Perennial rye lawn grasses in hazelnut aisles	Wild purslane want to be the cover crop
Second broadcast seeding buckwheat, uneven germination

 

Rural Advantage

Rural Advantage is a nonprofit organization, located in south central Minnesota, with the mission to promote the connections between agriculture, the environment and rural communities in order to improve ecological health, economic viability and rural vitality

The cover crop work by Rural Advantage is part of their 3rd Crop Initiative. 3rd crops are crops grown in addition to corn and soybeans, placed in the landscape to provide economic value to the producer and ecological services to society. 3rd crops are not meant to be a single crop, but rather a diverse range of non row crops and perennials. Cover crops are a good example of a 3rd crop because they add value to the farm operation by protecting the soil resource and building soil health and provide important water quality and other benefits to society. The nature of our work is outreach and education through our website, field days, one on one landowner contacts, displays and educational workshops.

Contact Information:
Linda Meschke, President - linda@ruraladvantage.org
Jeff Jensen, Program Assistant - jeff@ruraladvantage.org
and a Conservation Agronomist (to be hired)

Address:	1243 Lake Avenue, Suite 222 Fairmont, MN 56031-1942
Phone:	507-238-5449
Website:	http://www.ruraladvantage.org

 

Field day at Tony Thompson's farm	Field day at Tony Thompson's farm