Diversity of plants and animals is key to any thriving ecosystem. Here in the Midwest, however, we have become accustomed to seeing field after field of the same crop rotations – the opposite of diversity. And the resulting loss of soil health and wildlife has become...

  Practical Farmers of Iowa put on a great annual conference last week. Here are three insights we wanted to share: Fair Leasing with Flex Leasing: The session entitled Rethinking Farmland Leasing (led by Michael Downey of Next Gen Ag Advocates) caused us to, well,...

The first time we spoke with Beatrice Kamau, a native of Kenya who has now lived in Chicago for over 20 years, we felt there was something unstoppable in this soft spoken yet confident woman.   A nurse and single parent to her 17-year old daughter, Beatrice has been...

While much of the land access arrangements we see in the region is through leasing, purchasing land is ideal for long-term security. Can that be done on a tight budget? Our own Jim Kurczodyna (pictured above with his family and their cows) has experience doing just...

Cliff McConville and Anna Lipinska (pictured above) run All Grass Farms on long-term leased land from the Kane County at the Brunner Family Forest Preserve in Dundee. Since 2017, they have been actively seeking additional farmland as consumer demand has outgrown what...

At the start of our recent Farm Leasing 101 webinar, Rachel Armstrong of Farm Commons stated that joy (yes, joy!) is fully within reach in your farm lease relationships.   If you’ve had a painful lease experience, you might think Rachel is off her rocker. What kind of...

We see a unique variety of farmers using our FarmLink site – from ducks and dairy cattle to hemp and specialty grains.  But when Matt Ruhter filled out a profile for his family’s farm, their specialty stood out – bison! David and Kathleen Ruhter began Ruhter Bison...