Each year, the Greenbook, highlights the work of farmers, researchers, and educators who are willing to take the risks of discovery. These people are the vanguard of sustainable agriculture, testing new and innovative ideas and in the process expanding our understanding of what sustainable agriculture means. Many of these projects will become common farming practices around the countryside in the next few years.

The Greenbook also includes several thought-provoking essays on the experience of some early grantees with this diverse program.

Download/view the Greenbook '99: A Decade of Tools (PDF: 20.8 MB / 135 pages)

Table of Contents

Essays

• Introduction - A Decade of the Sustainable Agriculture Program in Minnesota 
• Controlling Apple Scab With Less Spray 
• "It's Far Deeper Than Machinery:" Intensive Rotational Grazing on the Molitor Farm 
• Cooperative Manure Composting Demonstration and Experiment

Alternative Crops

• Cultural and Management Techniques for Buckwheat Production and Marketing
• Dry Edible Beans as an Alternative Crop in a Direct Marketing Operation
• Alternative Management System in an Organic, Community Supported Market
• Pond Production of Yellow Perch
• Native Minnesota Medicinal Plant Production

Cropping Systems and Soil Fertility

• Cereal Rye for Reduced Input Pasture Establishment and Early Grazing
• Applying Manure to Corn at Agronomic Rates
• CRP in a Crop Rotation Program
• Evaluating Kura Clover for Long-Term Persistence
• The Winona Farm Community Compost Site
• Surface Application of Liming Materials
• Living Snow Fences for Improved Pasture Production
• Timing Cultivation to Reduce Herbicide Use in Ridge-till Soybeans
• Forage Mixture Performance
• Legume Cover Crops Interseeded in Corn as a Source of Nitrogen
• Interseeding Hairy Vetch in Sunflower and Corn
• A Comparison of Frost Seeding to Impaction Seeding on CRP Land and Wooded Hillsides Using Sheep for Impacting
• Growing Corn with Companion Crop Legumes for High Protein Silage
• Increased Forage Production Through Control of Water Runoff and Nutrient Recycling
• Reducing Chemical Usage by Using Soy Oil on Corn and Soybeans

Fruits and Vegetables

• Development of Mating Disruption and Mass Trapping Strategy for Apple Leafminer in Commercial Orchards
• Biological Control of Alfalfa Blotch Leafminer
• Cover Crops and Living Mulch for Strawberry Establishment

Learning Systems

• Midwest Food Connection: Children Monitor on Farms
• "Home on the Range" Poultry Collaborative Project
• Management Intensive Grazing Groups
• Building Relationships, Community, and Soil

Livestock

• Working Prairie - Roots of the Past Sustaining the Future
• Grass-and Forage-Based Finishing of Beef, with Consumer Testing
• Extending the Grazing Season with the Use of Forage Brassicas, Grazing Corn and Corn Silage Clamps
• Low Input Conversion of CRP Land to a High Profitability Management Intensive Grazing and Haying System
• Deep Straw Bedded Swine Finishing System Utilizing Hoop Buildings
• Dairy Steers and Replacement Heifers Raised on Pasture
• Learning Advanced Management Intensive Grazing Through Mentoring
• Renovation of River Bottom Pasture
• Low Cost Sow Gestation in Hoop Structure
• First and Second Year Grazers in a Year Round Pasture Setting Served by a Frost Free Water System
• Establishing Pasture Forages by Feeding Seed to Cattle
• Hoop Houses and Pastures for Mainstream Hog Producers
• Managing Dairy Manure Nutrients in a Recycling Compost Program

Whole Farm Systems

• Whole Farm Planning Program 
• Whole Farm Planning
• Converting a Whole Farm Cash Crop System to Sustainable Livestock Production with Intensive Rotational Grazing: A Case Study and Demonstration of Process and Whole Farm Profitability
• Whole System Management vs. Enterprise Management
• Reviving and Enhancing Soils for Maximizing Performance of Pastures and Livestock
• The Introduction of Feed Peas & Feed Barley into Whole Farm Planning

Additional Projects

• Animal Mortality Composting
• Big Woods Dairy at Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park
• Organic Production in Minnesota
• Sustainable Agriculture Loan Program
• The Rainfall Simulator: A Fun Way to Learn About Soil Health