DAN'S Blog

How can I make the most money off the land I own?  This central question has many alarming issues with it, yet it remains the common mindset of most farmers and other landowners throughout the country.  The effects of this land ethic have already been observed and will continue to grow without wise choices and forward thinking of today’s landowners.

When Europeans first started settling the land we call America, they saw a pristine, resource-rich land, ripe for exploitation.  The land gave them everything they needed from food and clean water to strong lumber for housing.    The abundance of resources in early America led to a rush of resource extraction.  How could timber so abundant and soil so deep and fertile ever run out?   Continue reading

Beautiful tall grass prairie once spanned across the entire Midwest, dominating all other plant types and providing choice habitat for many animals both large and small  https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Neal_Smith/wildlife_and_habitat/tallgrass_prairie.html.  Today, seeing prairie for more than a few acres is hard to imagine, as European settlement and agriculture has brought a momentous shift to the ecosystem we now call home.

The human population has been expanding rapidly for decades and is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/2015-report.html  Likewise, the demand for food continues to increase.  The more people this world holds, the more food we must grow, and that is why every last acre of Midwest soil is currently used to grow crops like corn and soybeans. Continue reading

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