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Hungry and Seemingly Unstoppable: Grasshoppers Invade Canada’s Prairies

Modern Farmer

Their meals of choice are: barley, oats, corn, soy, wheat, rye and alfalfa, the mainstay commercial crops of prairie farmers. Unfortunately, prevention isn’t as easy as spraying the larvae with pesticides. This means farms have to keep the crop alive and use up precious water resources in an already water-restricted environment.

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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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How to Improve Long-Term Soil Health on Your Farm

Farmbrite

Healthy soil can mean increased yields (and profits) as well as fewer inputs like fertilizer or pesticides. One common method is the traditional or sequential crop rotation, where different crops are grown in a planned sequence over a period of years. Avoid overgrazing your pasture lands.

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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. Rotating crops also significantly reduces pests and diseases.

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These State Lawmakers Are Collaborating on Policies that Support Regenerative Agriculture

Civil Eats

Against the backdrop of a carefully managed perennial pasture, the gathering focused on legislative approaches to promoting regenerative farming and ranching practices, which the group believes can galvanize support across partisan and rural-urban divides.