Hobby Farms
Mud Solutions For Soggy Season On The Farm
It s the dreaded mud season for many parts of the U.S., an annoying and potentially dangerous time of year on the farm. Here s how you can manage the muck.
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It’s getting to be that time of year we all dread, when snow melts and early spring rains collide. It’s mud time on the farm.
Keeping animals clean and dry with sticky muck all around feels like an uphill battle. But you don’t have to give in and wait for the heat of summer to solve the problem.
Landowners can apply for grants to fund projects that target clean water in the Missouri River Watershed. 5:00 am, Jan. 27, 2021 ×
This diagram shows the construction of a water and sediment control basin in Rock County s Denver Township that was funded by the state s Clean Water Fund through the Missouri River Watershed Partnership. (Special to The Globe)
REGIONAL Nearly a year after the state approved the Missouri River Watershed Partnership (MRWP) and its 10-year water plan, 27 contracts totaling $522,000 in cost-share grants have been signed with landowners to implement conservation projects in five counties of far southwest Minnesota.
The grants comprise nearly half of the $1,320,445 MRWP received from the state’s Clean Water Fund last June. The Clean Water Fund dollars are meant to cover projects during a two-year period.
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
LINCOLN, Neb. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has selected 31 priority areas to receive $13 million in Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funding as part of the WaterSMART Initiative (WSI). These investments will help producers on private working lands better conserve water resources in coordination with investments made by water suppliers.
Our farmers and ranchers are stepping up to the plate to partner with communities to gain efficiencies to better conserve our water supply, said Jason Kennedy, NRCS, District Conservationist. Working with the WaterSMART Initiative allows us to make a bigger impact where its most needed.
CDC promotes Vermont testing program
On the 8th of May, the Vermont Department of Health instituted a policy whereby those who had been exposed to COVID-19 who were in quarantine could leave early if they tested negative after 7 days. A study conducted by the CDC found that this method was effective at catching COVID-19 among asymptomatic people in quarantine, while also allowing people who were not infected to get back to their normal lives sooner. They suggested that other states should consider this policy.
New Technology for Monitoring Bird Populations
Gathering specific data on bird populations can be difficult, since their rapid movement and ability to hide in foliage make consistent observation impossible. A newly developed technology called an acoustic recording unit uses algorithms to detect different birdsongs. This technology was recently tested in the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park in Vermont, to examine the presence of the Eastern Wood-Pewee (Con
Related Ron Rosmann’s 700-acre certified organic grain and livestock farm in Shelby County, Iowa is an island in a sea of very large conventional soy or corn operations. Farmers in the area don’t typically pay a lot of attention to the health of their soil which has, on occasion, eroded onto his property. Others in the area operate concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). It’s not uncommon, for example, for one of his neighbor’s cattle manure lagoons to overflow into a nearby creek.
While Rosmann is pleased that more farmers there are adopting cover crops to reduce erosion and runoff, it still only amounts to roughly 4 percent of Iowa farms. And he laments that the pace of change toward conservation practices is simply too slow given the region’s mounting water quality concerns.