Last summer, we attended a field day for kernza (perennial wheatgrass) in Lac qui Parle County, and so we were delighted to read in several southeastern Minnesota newspapers about the City of Chatfield's use of the grain for water quality.
At the Fillmore County Journal, Karen Reisner reports in Fire hydrants and Kernza:
A Kernza licensing agreement and the replacement of five fire hydrants were discussed at the Chatfield City Council’s August 13 meeting.
Brian Burkholder, public works, introduced the agreement with The Land Institute (Kansas) which owns the trademark for Kernza, a perennial, continuous living cover crop, which can be used to improve water quality. It is an intermediate wheat grass with roots that survive through the winter. There are two plots (a total of 10 acres) in the city, one owned by the city and the other privately owned. Burkholder reported that the Kernza had been thrashed this last Thursday and will be combined.
The licensing agreement allows the seed to be sold and distributed. The city’s well protection plan includes the crop management of Kernza, which helps use up nitrates, protecting water quality.
A Kernza Field Day was held on August 22, with the program running from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. Taking place south of the Chatfield Elementary School on Hillside Dr., there were several speakers on subjects including water protection, soil health, nitrogen research, and Kernza cover crops. Attendees were able to see Kernza and look at its root base. . .
The Chatfield News' Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy reports in Special field day highlights benefits of Kernza on soil health:
August 22: Field Day.
Purpose: Amber waves of grain conquering erosion, carbon dioxide.
The Olmsted County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) presented a field day at the privately-owned acreage along Wisdom Lane where the city of Chatfield planted Kernza, or intermediate wheatgrass developed by the University of Minnesota to help hold topsoil in place and capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to reduce greenhouse gases causing climate change.
Farmer Martin Larsen, of the SWCD, said, “This opened up the opportunity for cover crops on my farm, and there’s been pretty stark changes. I’m the fifth generation on our 700-acre farm, and our acreage is 100 percent no-till and cover crop, and next door, with only two inches of rain, you can see the signs of runoff, soil loss, and phosphorus coming in. Keeping the soil armored and increasing plant diversity with a continuous root in the ground and integrating livestock into the plan…it’s a changing philosophy.”
As a farmer, Larsen said he was locked into the idea that soil was a factory and that one should put in commercial fertilizers to get a product out.
“That’s not what Mother Nature intended,” he said. “When you look at the soil as a whole, you look at the complex system it is. The two-crop system leaves barren soil until you plant again in the spring, and vegetation growth drops off and leaves a lot of time before planting, and there’s not much growth, nutrient uptake and carbon dioxide sequestering.”
Larsen told how his farm now has winter rye planted to slow erosion and how he “inter-seeds” his fields to plant two crops at the same time — the annual crops with perennial crops in between the rows — so that there is “minimal disturbance” of the ground, a goal of no-till farming because each time a field is plowed or worked, its soil structure is changed. . . .
Larsen was the second speaker in a series of field day presenters who outlined what Kernza can do for crop farming and the local drinking water service management area (DWSMA) wellhead protection plan. The morning’s speakers also included Scott Hanson of the Minnesota Rural Water Association (MRWA) and Greg Klinger of the University of Minnesota Extension presenting on the results of three years of on-farm nitrogen studies in southeastern Minnesota. Jake Jungers of the Forever Green Initiative spoke about how Kernza has been chosen as a profitable crop to protect source water. Erin Meier of Green Land, Blue Waters shared information on “Emerging Markets for Kernza Perennial Grain,” with a short presentation by SWCD staff on a Kernza soil pit and sampling of food and beer produced from Kernza grain.
Chatfield planted two plots of Kernza — one on the private property near Wisdom Lane and another on a city-owned acreage just off County Road 10 east of Chatfield — as part of a University of Minnesota and MRWA pilot program for wellhead protection and cover crop promotion.
Read the entire article at the Bluff Country Newspaper Group.
Last year, the Rochester Post Bulletin covered the launch of thesmall city's innovative approach to water quality protection in Chatfield tests new cover crop that protects groundwater:
Chatfield officials are planting an uncommon crop in hopes of protecting the town's drinking water supply.
The City of Chatfield is working with the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Rural Water Association to determine the viability of Kernza, an intermediate wheatgrass. Officials planted Kernza on 3 acres of city-owned land last week as part of an effort to protect the local water supply.
Chatfield is the first city in Southeast Minnesota to plant Kernza — a perennial crop sporting a dense root structure. The crop requires less nitrogen than others and decreases nitrogen groundwater contamination.
The city first learned of Kernza after two officials attended a Minnesota Rural Water Association conference, where University of Minnesota researchers held a presentation on the wheatgrass.
"We have never thought necessarily of what crops should one plant. We don't usually go that far," said Chatfield City Clerk Joel Young.
But the city saw the plant as a way to reduce the leaching of nitrogen into its groundwater, Young said.
Chatfield often tests its groundwater for nitrates, he said, but trace amounts can still appear.
"That's always a concern, because we're in an ag area," he said.
Though the city has a clean water supply, Young said officials have noticed nitrate increases in certain water wells over time.
A profitable crop that can improve groundwater quality? Check it out at the Bulletin. Learn more about the profitable grain in Cody Nelson's report at MPR this spring, This grain fights climate change -- and makes a tasty Minnesota beer.
Photo: Kernza's roots.
If you appreciate our posts and original analysis, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button.
Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.
Comments