Entries by Cathy Svejkovsky

Seeing the Farm with Fresh Eyes

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By Nina Prater, NCAT Agriculture Specialist Over 15 years ago, I moved from Vermont to Arkansas, and I’ve been here farming in the Ozarks ever since. The differences between the two places revealed themselves more and more the longer I lived here. The growing season here is longer, which seemed like a gift at first, […]

Healthy Soil Structure – The House of Life

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By Justin Morris, NCAT Regenerative Livestock Specialist Could you ever live in a house that collapsed on itself? Probably not. To begin living there, we would have to rebuild the house by adding more space between the walls, ceiling, and floor. By the same token, soil life cannot live in soils that have collapsed where […]

Managing Phosphorus for Clean Water

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By Nina Prater, NCAT Agriculture Specialist Almost every day, I am lucky enough to be able to take a quick walk to the creek that runs at the western edge of our property. I watch it change with the seasons. It becomes a tumultuous riot in the spring, sometimes it dries out completely in a […]

15 Years of Change – A Brief Overview of Changes to Montana’s Small Grain Cropping Systems 2007-2022

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By Andrew Coggins, NCAT Rocky Mountain West Regional Director Changes are happening in Montana agriculture. The past 15 years have seen significant change in acreages in field crop production, acreages lost each year to failed or abandoned crops, acreages committed to cover cropping and soil improvement, acreages registered as organic, and acreages fallowed. All of […]

Glossary of Terms: Climate, Carbon, and Agriculture

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By Nina Prater, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist; Lee Rinehart, NCAT Northeast Regional Director; Katherine Favor, NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist; and Elise Haschke, NCAT Climate and Agriculture Program Manager The words and terms in the conversation around climate change can be confusing or unclear. The terminology being used to represent the relationship between climate and agriculture […]

Weaning Pasture Soils Off Chemical Dependence

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By Lee Rinehart, NCAT Agriculture Specialist I recently received an email from a farmer in New England. They have put a lot of effort into their beef farm to bring their soil to life after decades of conventional corn and hay production with substantial chemical inputs. They have been working to improve the health of […]

Crop Selection and Planting Schedules for Winter High Tunnel Production

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By Chris Lent, NCAT Agriculture Specialist Spring is a hard time for growers to think about winter growing, but since some winter-harvested crops are planted mid to late summer, spring isn’t a bad time to start thinking about crop selection and a planting schedule for the winter high tunnel. High tunnels are one of the […]

Free Bees, Part One: Finding Them

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By Justin Duncan, NCAT Agriculture Specialist As a beekeeper, I get blamed for all the bees taking up residence in folks’ houses in the area. Its not fair because I properly maintain my bees and thus prevent swarming. I happily remove these bees, of course, to grow my collection, so their misplaced blame leads to […]

Residue Testing for Chemicals in Agricultural Soil

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By Lee Rinehart, NCAT Agriculture Specialist Each year, a half million tons of pesticides are applied to U.S. farmland to produce crops (U.S. Geological Survey). Because of persistent pesticide use, much of our soils, as well as some of the crops and food products produced, are contaminated with chemical residues (NSW Department of Primary Industries). […]