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Can Taller Cover Crops Help Clean the Water in Farm Country?

Civil Eats

The tall forage stands out in southeastern Minnesota’s corn and soybean fields, which this time of year have been reduced to stubble poking through the snow. It works as both a cover crop and forage for the cattle, and it’s helping Bedtka build up organic matter in his soil. That’s where the sorghum-sudangrass comes in.

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Changing How We Farm Might Protect Wild Mammals—and Fight Climate Change

Civil Eats

land, with cropland expanding by 1 million acres per year, fueling habitat loss for wildlife and mammals. For instance, agriculture can destroy forest habitats that certain bat species, like the endangered Indiana bat or northern long-eared bat , use for roosting and foraging. Deer, for example, help cycle nutrients and fertilize soil.

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In Fire-Stricken Maui, Sustainable Land Management Is Key

Modern Farmer

Peppered throughout some 500 acres of charred pastureland, he found sizable patches of grass left unscathed by the blaze. The fire burned right around them,” says the 73-year old rancher and owner of Diamond B Ranch, noting the intact areas—some as big as a quarter acre. That’s the fight I’m in,” Balthazar adds.

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The Healing Power of Collaboration – Timber Ridge, Nanton, Alberta

RR2CS

By Trina Moyles Glen and Kelly Hall have been managing Timber Ridge Ranch, a 480-acre farmland situated an hour south of Calgary near Stavely, Alberta, for over 40 years. Over the last four decades, they have seeded an impressive 5,000 acres, aiming to enhance biodiversity both above and below the soil. Absolutely.

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Farmers Can Adapt to Alternating Droughts and Floods—Here’s How

The Equation

But for now, to offset flood risk from rising water levels, the State Water Resources Control Board has agreed to send more than 600,000 acre-feet of water (pretty much what Los Angeles consumes in a year) to areas where it can soak into the ground and replenish the aquifer beneath the San Joaquin Valley.

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Agricultural Diversification: Practice and Policy

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

And beyond the diversification associated with cropping fields, adding livestock diversity into a system can reduce challenges like pests and diseases while allowing for nutrient cycling from livestock to soil and back to crop or forage species. Mixed summer forage in the Southeast U.S.

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Our 2023 Food and Farming Holiday Book Gift Guide

Civil Eats

Our Staff Reporter Grey Moran has a delightful article about foraging , published in Grist, included in the book. smith Slow Drinks: A Field Guide to Foraging and Fermenting Seasonal Sodas, Botanical Cocktails, Homemade Wines, and More By Danny Childs Danny Childs studied ethnobotany in college. To make an amaro (relatively easy!)

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