Bus Tour of Niche Crops Operation

Using niche crops as the basis for profitable biofuel and livestock enterprises will be the focus of a free bus tour originating from Montevideo on Monday, Aug. 15. The tour will leave at 11 a.m. from the Land Stewardship Project office at 301 State Road. The bus will return to Montevideo at approximately 6:30 p.m.; participants are encouraged to bring a sack lunch to eat on the bus. Pre-registration is required. 

To register, contact Jessi Wood at 320-269-2105 or jwood@landstewardshipproject.org.

The tour will feature EcoSun Prairie Farm near Brookings, S. Dak. EcoSun Prairie Farm is a leased 640-acre corn and soybean operation intended as a working model of agricultural and ecological sustainability. The goal of the farm is to demonstrate how highly productive, efficient and ecologically healthy niche cropping systems can help producers and landowners make a good living.

EcoSun has restored tallgrass prairie on cropland and on rehabilitated remnant swards of Conservation Reserve Program land as well as pasture. It has also restored plant systems in 35 temporary and seasonal wetland basins drained by previous operators.

This tour will be of interest to: 

1) Farmers wanting to escape the high cost of land and tillage machinery, heavy pesticide use and confining farm price support programs typical of contemporary row-crop agriculture.

 2) Non-traditional farmers who desire to farm in an ecologically-healthy way and produce unsubsidized products such as grass-fed meat for local and regional markets.

3) Absentee landowners who bought land for outdoor recreation but desire income tomake their land payments and pay property taxes.

This tour is being sponsored by the Chippewa 10% Project (www.profitsfromperennials.org), which is helping family farmers find profitable ways to add diversity to their farms and secure their long-term viability for the next generation. This is a joint initiative of the Land Stewardship Project and the Chippewa River Watershed Project.