What does Mother Nature want? As farmers, we do a lot to fight her. If the soil is hard, we till it. If our crops have weeds, we spray them. If the land doesn’t have the right amount of nutrients, we inject them. This has been the way to farm for the past 50 years….
“The farm economy is a tough life to make ends meet,” says Frankfort, South Dakota farmer Jamie Johnson. Of course, if you’re reading this, you probably don’t need to be reminded. Farming has always been hard work and with soil degradation, sagging commodity prices and input costs on the rise, it doesn’t appear to be…
There are many different farming tools and methods, but fundamentally, there are only two ways to farm – with Mother Nature or against her. Unfortunately, conventional agriculture has sided with the latter. Only in recent years has the idea of working alongside Mother Nature picked up momentum. One operation that’s been ahead of the curve…
“Sustainable” is a word we often overuse. Sure, it has plenty of appeal – a sustainable farming operation is good for the land, wildlife, and future generations. What often gets lost in the message, however, is the benefits of sustainability for the farmer himself in the here and now! The reality is farming “sustainably” does…
In a lot of ways, farming success comes down to efficiency How efficiently can a farmer make use of his time? How efficiently can he make use of his inputs? How efficiently can he make use of his available resources? When it comes specifically to those available resources, there is one that stands above the…
This past week, we were blessed with another opportunity to visit the Mount Rushmore State and pick the brains of several leading farmers in East River. Unlike trips of the past, this go around we paid less attention to the isolated nuts and bolts of farming. These oft-discussed “nuts and bolts” include individual topics like…
In the beginning, the argument against soil health practices like no-till and cover crops was generally pretty straightforward: “They just don’t work!” Of course, with the emergence of data that favors these practices over their traditional counterparts, the argument has shifted to: “That may work for them over there, but that doesn’t work here!” This argument is…
It’s been said that what comes easy doesn’t last, and what lasts doesn’t come easy. This adage is especially true when it comes to change. Any change worth making isn’t going to be done overnight and it isn’t going to be realized without difficulty. One Iowa farm is showing the Midwest though that, when it…
“Healthy soils are a farmer’s best friend.” Anyone in or around the soil health movement is most likely familiar with this notion. Of course, it is still of fierce debate between conventional and regenerative farmers. Here at Merit or Myth, we’ve dedicated most of our efforts to understanding both sides of the coin in an…
Learning obviously isn’t relegated only to the classroom. This is one of the key reasons Merit or Myth was formed – to identify and spread truths that haven’t found their way into textbooks yet. One year ago this month we shared our first true Facebook post with the world. 22 videos, 555 page likes, over…
