North Central

Farmers' Guide to Minnesota Lending Law

256-page farmers' guide for farmers and agricultural professionals to understand farmer-borrowers rights and best practices for accessing and utilizing credit. Ordering Information Wendy Reidlawyers@flaginc.orgFarmers' Legal Action Group6 West 5th Street, Ste 650St. Paul, MN 55120Publication/product ID: n/a

Beyond the Farmer’s Market: A New Guide to Building Your Own On-Farm Store

Grace Place Farm & Gardens in South Dakota is proving that for small-scale producers, a well-placed farm store can be just as vital to the bottom line as a successful harvest. With support from an NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher grant, they have explored how simple digital communication combined with a welcoming on-farm store can help producers […]

Battling Herbicide-Resistant Weeds with Cover Crops

Fall- and spring-planted cover crops could suppress weeds in wheat–sorghum–fallow systems.

A Guide to Building a DIY Portable Milking Parlour

A guide to building a low-cost milking parlor with detailed plans, pictures, and part lists. This is a construction guide for a milking parlor that can be built by a novice builder that requires no special tools.

Urban Farming Soil Life Short Course Videos

The Xerces Society's Urban Farming Soil Life Short Course taught urban farmers and agricultural educators who speak English or Spanish about the organisms that contribute to soil health, farm productivity, and food safety. Through a series of six comprehensive short courses and a companion pocket guide—also offered in both English and Spanish—educators and farmers learned […]

Pocket ID Guide to Invertebrates of Urban Soils

About 25% of all known organisms on the planet are animals that live in the soil through all or a portion of their lives. The majority of these animals are invertebrates that interact with microbes, plants, and each other, forming the life of healthy soils. The invertebrate animals featured in this guide are large enough […]

Food-Grade Grains 101: Online Training

Three simple, click-through modules provide the basics of getting seed in the ground to harvesting and marketing food-grade grains.

Research Unearths Information about Soil Blocks

A team in Iowa explored an innovative way for farmers to reduce the need for plastic trays by creating planting media in a compressed block.

Apply for a Professional Development Program Grant

Proposals are due on November 5, 2025, by 4pm Central.

Apply for a Partnership Grant

Proposals are due November 20, 2025 by 4pm Central.

Cover Crops for Weed Control in the Semiarid Central Great Plains

Research in Kansas shows fall- and spring-planted cover crops could suppress weeds in wheat–sorghum–fallow systems.

Iowa Beekeeper Advances Beekeeping Education with SARE Grants

With support from SARE, Julia McGuire has been enhancing beekeeping education and promoting sustainable business practices in Iowa.

Groundwork: A Missouri Farm Family’s Transition to Regenerative Practices

Nieder Farms in Krakow, Missouri, has been operated by the Nieder family since it was founded in the 1870s, raising livestock and poultry throughout its 140-year history. When fifth-generation owners Trisha Nieder and Daniel Gonzalez returned to the family farm with their two sons, the whole family realized they needed innovative ideas to tackle the […]

Soils: A Practical Guide for Organic Farmers and Gardeners

This textbook for organic farmers and gardeners covers the physical characteristics of soil, soil chemistry, organic matter, nutrients from soil, carbon flows and nutrient cycles, soil sampling/testing, fertilizers, compost, and manure.

Resources and Case Studies for Implementing Prairie Strips Across the Midwest

Compared to other Conservation Reserve Program practices, prairie strips (CP43) offer many advantages. Prairie strips can be placed both within fields and along their edges. Planting 10% of fields to prairie strips can reduce sediment and nutrient loss. The practice is flexible, with the option of driving on strips when needed for farm operations. And […]

Student Cooperative Start-Up Toolkit

This practical, digital toolkit was created by Ohio State University for educators and community members who are interested in building a student-led cooperative approach to an agricultural enterprise. The toolkit includes learning activities about agricultural cooperatives, sustainable agriculture, and agricultural marketing, as well as strategies and tools for developing a student-led cooperative model, an agribusiness […]

Getting Started in Agritourism Checklist

This checklist guides agritourism business owners through best management practices when hosting on-farm visitors. It was developed by Iowa State University. It includes sections on legal considerations, food regulations, visitor accommodations, farm emergency preparedness, biosecurity, pesticide safety, public play area safety, employee management and marketing practices.

Rotational Grazing with Cover Crops Case Studies

Since rotational grazing of cover crops is not a common practice, to address some of the current questions from farmers in the upper Midwest, the Sand County Foundation of Wisconsin partnered with the Sauk Soil and Water Improvement Group and the University of Wisconsin-Madison to explore short-term agronomic and environmental costs and benefits of managed […]

Kernza Disease Guide Cards

As a perennial grain crop, intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium, marketed under the trade name Kernza in reference to the grain) offers an economic opportunity to growers who are interested in improving the environmental condition of their farmland. Despite this opportunity, there is a possibility that perennial crops can harbor pathogen populations that increase over time. Although […]