This past summer Freshwater hired 4 undergrads from the College of Biological Sciences to learn about regenerative agriculture practices and help develop policy recommendations. They are pictured above in front of the Soil Warrior, a strip-till farming implement designed to minimize soil disturbance during planting into a cover crop.
Elizabeth and Amanda learning about soil horizons in an undisturbed setting.They helped collect data in an ongoing, 5-year longitudinal study of farms transitioning from row-crop agriculture to a regenerative, tree-range, poultry system. We are documenting the physical, biological and chemical aspects of soil change and the resulting improvements to water infiltration and runoff.
What we have observed so far is promising! Farms that have been in this system for multiple years have much improved soil structure, infiltration and water-holding capacity. Plus, they sequester greenhouse gases.
Measuring infiltration in a soybean field.
Father-son duo at a soil health workshop who were interviewed by the interns about plans for their S. Washington Co. farm.The students were commonly out standing in a field. They attended farm tours, soil-health workshops, mingled with the crowd at FarmFest and conducted one-on-one interviews with farmers engaged in generational handoff of a farm. They wanted to understand what kept farmers from adopting more water-friendly farming practices.
They presented their work to over 60 Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisors, in a seminar class at the U of M, to the Freshwater Board and have plans for submitting an opinion piece in a soil conservation journal.
Freshwater will use their insights to make policy recommendations to the Board of Water and Soil Resources as they role out the new Soil Health program. It offers financial incentives for farmers to adopt soil- and water-friendly farming practices.
Just as importantly, the next generation of ecologists has been inspired by viewing farming as its own kind of ecosystem that functions best when all aspects are considered together. One even added a soil minor to her ecology degree.
The interns worked alongside our research team who include:
Regi explaining his theory of change and chicken-focused world domination.Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin. Regi is a first-generation immigrant from Guatemalan, a regenerative farmer and originator of the tree-range poultry model. He studied agriculture in Guatemala and relies on Mayan and local Indigenous practices to inform his methods. He farms in Northfield, helps other immigrant and new farmers enter his system and now has a poultry processing plant in Albert Lea. Look for the Tree-Range brand at the Wedge and other co-ops.
Dr. Dan Hernandez. 
Dan Hernandez, center and Louis and Marshall, Freshwater interns on right. Others are Carleton students.Dan is the Chair of the Biology Dept. at Carleton College. He and his students are using novel biological methods in the 5-year monitoring project to measure greenhouse gas flux and enzyme activity in the soil to assess the function and population of the microorganisms present. These rganisms play a key role in developing soil structure and sequestering carbon.
Dr. Beth Fisher is faculty at Minnesota State, Mankato. Her research is focused on regenerative agriculture and en
Beth and the amazing Amoozemeter that measures how water soaks in. We compared conventional fields to the regenerative farms. vironmental justice and her undergraduate students are making field and lab measurements of the soil physical and biogeochemical properties, including wet aggregate stability, organic carbon and nitrogen, bulk density, infiltration, saturated hydraulic conductivity, water chemistry of runoff events, and continuous monitoring of precipitation.
John Beck explaining soil aggregates to Marshall and AmandaDr. John Beck. John has mapped soils across the state and region during his career with the NRCS. He is retired from his most recent position as State Soil Scientist and is now volunteering with the NRCS to investigate soil health practices. His specialty is soil hydrology. His methodical note-taking and observational methods are a result of years of soil mapping and the students loved learning from him.