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Soil-health farmers and researchers will lead a free workshop focused on incorporating cover crops into a farming  operation and seeking to diverse crops this month at Riverland Community College in Austin.

“Cover Crops 101 & Crop Diversity” will be from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. March 17 at Riverland’s west campus, 1900 Eighth Ave.  N.W., and include a free pizza lunch. This workshop will offer three continuing education credits for those who need them. Main topics will include discussing crop technology and building resiliency in your soil, specifically to corn rootworm and other  agronomic pests. Featured speakers are cover crops farmer and seed dealer Andy Linder; soil-health researcher Dr. Ann Journey;  cover crops seed dealer and farmer TJ Kartes; and soil scientist and cover crops farmer Steve Lawler of Mower Soil & Water  Conservation District. 

Funding from the state’s Clean Water Fund is supporting the workshop through the Cedar-Wapsipinicon Comprehensive  Watershed Management Plan. 

Linder, who discusses the economics of soil health and how he does it in a financially sustainable way, farms with his father,  Don, near Easton, Minn., where they raise no-till soybeans; no-till and strip-till corn; oats; canning crops; and hay. In 2019, Linder  Family Farms was recognized as the state’s Outstanding Conservationist of the Year by the Minnesota Association of Soil & Water  Conservation Districts.

Under his company Agro Solutions, Linder sells cover crop seeds and performs high-clearance applications of cover crops.  Since 2016, the Linders have planted 100 percent of their acres to cover crops every year. They also have greatly reduced tillage on  all their acres and, in 2019, started grazing cover crops following their small-grain harvest. 

Journey is an agricultural entomologist and soil-health expert who founded EntoVentures. She’s an independent soil, wetland  and stream health evaluator and environmental educator. She was a soil health coordinator (ACES) with USDA-NRCS in St. Paul  from 2016 to 2020 and has conducted ag entomology research at the University of Minnesota. Her research is focused on corn  rootworms, and included studies of conventional insecticides, biological control and ecological evaluations of transgenic, herbicide tolerant and rootworm-resistant corn. 

Based in Blooming Prairie, Kartes is a seed dealer for Saddle Butte Ag Inc. and a seasoned producer with extensive knowledge  on using cover crops, including on land he farms in the area. Kartes has teamed with Mower SWCD numerous times to offer free  “Cover Crops 101” sessions. 

Lawler is a soil scientist for Mower SWCD and helps run a family farm near Eyota, Minn., where they grow cover crops and  allow beef cattle to graze on cover crops. Lawler also is continuing a multi-year study on nitrate movement in groundwater in  relation to conventional tillage and the use of cover crops at the Sustainable Answer Acre near Lansing. 

Cover crops — such as cereal rye, oats and winter wheat — usually are planted in coordination with regular cash crops like  corn and soybeans to temporarily protect cropland from wind and water erosion as well as give living roots to the soil during times  when cropland often doesn’t have adequate protection, according to the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

Viewed as tools to keep soil in place, cover crops can support healthy soils and cropland sustainability efforts. They can bolster  soil health; improve water quality; increase stormwater infiltration in soil; and reduce pollution from ag activities.