MISA Report Makes Case for Reintegrating Ruminant Grazing Among Row Crops

Dec 05, 2024

Adding cover crops, perennial foraging and grazing to row crop and small-grain operations in Minnesota could bring less soil erosion and nitrate pollution of waterways and lower greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report from the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (MISA) at the University of Minnesota.

“Creating Opportunity by Re-Integrating Ruminant Grazing in Row Crop Country” was created by George Boody, endowed chair in agricultural systems at the U of MN and former executive director of the Land Stewardship Project. He finds making a shift on 7.5 million acres of mostly marginal land in the state from traditional row crop production or basic grazing on existing grasslands to more continuous living cover and well-managed grazing, could drive a public benefit of $450 million over six years after an initial $330 million in state-funded cost-sharing for farmers to shift their practices.

“With the integration of continuous living cover and managed rotational grazing of cattle, Minnesota farmers have an opportunity to help meet the Next Generation Energy Goals of 30 percent interim reduction of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, while building soil health in their fields,” Boody says. “Substantial public benefits in water quality, wildlife habitat, and new farmer opportunities justify the taxpayer investments needed to spur adoption at a landscape scale.”

Twenty-one farmers were interviewed for the report, including Luverne and MJ Forbord who farm near Starbuck. The Forbords both grew up on farms where the soil was tilled for row crops. After nearly 20 years of farming, they made the switch and “ditched the tillage,” they say. “Now the whole farm is converted to perennials grazed by our cattle. We’ve seen much better soil aggregation, better water infiltration, and the organic matter has increased. We see erosion in farm country, but not on our farm, not anymore.”

Boody’s report documents extensive research and mapping on the impacts of shifts in cropping practices and livestock integration on both cropping systems and environmental factors. The report includes detailed calculations of reductions in nitrate releases to waterways and greenhouse gas emissions under scenarios where marginal land in row crop production or grass was shifted to cover cropping, perennial forage and/or well-managed grazing.

The report outlines opportunities for farmers with small and midsize beef feedlots in southwestern Minnesota to supply animals for custom grazing on neighboring farms’ cover crop forage in the fall. Shifting marginal corn-soybean acres into perennial forage would also provide startup opportunities for beginning livestock farmers.

The report, supplemental materials and videos of farm operations are available on the MISA website: https://misa.umn.edu/publications/reintegrating-ruminant-grazing-row-crop-country. You can also find a series of 10 videos highlighting ways farmers in Minnesota have integrated livestock into their cropping systems or envision doing so.

“This report is but the latest in a long history of excellent projects led by talented people in the rotating Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems,” notes MISA Executive Director Helene Murray. “We are proud of that program’s contribution to sustainability of agriculture in Minnesota since its inception in 1994.”

Source : umn.edu

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”