success in farming, at least in the heart of the Corn Belt. College took her to the East Coast and she later worked as a lobbyist for a Minneapolis-based law firm. But her agrarian roots were calling, so Bernhardt started working for the National Young Farmers Coalition, an opportunity that took her to New York. Through that Using Farm Beginnings & Soil Health to Push Marginal Land Beyond Expectations experience, she saw that there were opportunities in agriculture that go beyond raising corn and soybeans. She met farmers ag land far from traditional Farm Country who were running Community Supported By Brian DeVore can exceed expectations with the help of the Agriculture operations and raising pasturekind of innovative management they learned raised livestock for direct sale to consumhere are upsides to launching a through the Land Stewardship Project’s ers. At one point, she was working on two farm on raw, open land: no brokenFarm Beginnings Program. rooftop farms in Brooklyn. “It was really down outbuildings or junk piles to “We were able to buy 10 times more land funny — like I grew up on a farm and here deal with, the ability to truly start anew from here than we could have afforded in southI am growing vegetables on a roof in New the soil up. Then…there’s the other side of ern Minnesota,” says Misik. And for BernYork City,” she recalls. the fence, so to speak. hardt, that not only means they have more Bernhardt became particularly convinced “I decided to move the sheep before they room to make a fulltime living on the land, there are alternative ways to make it in farmmove themselves,” says Hannah Bernhardt but an opportunity to have a positive impact ing when she worked on a pasture-based with a laugh as she finishes setting up a new on a bigger patch of real estate. “How much livestock operation in the Hudson Valley. paddock on a windswept pasture in northland can you improve in southern Minnesota That experience also won her over to the eastern Minnesota on an October afternoon. when you can only afford to buy five acres? economic and ecological benefits of regenerThe white wool of the sheep pops in contrast It’s like if you can afford 160 acres, think of ative livestock production, and she returned to the mix of dormant grasses and stillthe good you can do improving that amount to Minnesota to launch her farming career. growing green forage in the new grazing of soil,” she says. Misik had little background in farming, area Bernhardt has formed but grew up in a dairy producing with the portable electronet. community in southeastern WisconIt turns out one of the major sin. His lack of farming experience downsides to a piece of land is one of the reasons the couple that lacks even the most basic enrolled in the Land Stewardship of infrastructure is loose Project’s Farm Beginnings course livestock and the need to do during the winter of 2015-2016. fencing on the go. Once, on The other reason was that Bernhardt Bernhardt’s birthday no less, has always been concerned about the cattle disappeared. Surher lack of financial acumen. That prise! It turned out they had was also a reason they took LSP’s walked two miles to the town follow-up course, Journeyperson, a of Finlayson. And don’t even few years later. get her started on the head“Through Farm Beginnings, aches involved with getting Hannah wrote a really impressive water to livestock on open business plan,” says Misik. “That’s land: hauling lots of buckets, probably the single most important cracked tanks in winter — thing. Hannah is a perfectionist, so you get the picture. she took it all the way. There were “I usually tell people the “We were able to buy 10 times more land here than we could have pie charts, spreadsheets, and photoonly way I would recomafforded in southern Minnesota,” says Jason Misik, shown here with graphs.” mend starting with raw land Hannah Bernhardt. (LSP Photo) “I overcompensated,” Bernhardt is if you’re an insane person admits with a shrug. who wants to work non-stop,” says BernThe Farm Beginnings course, which LSP hardt, 38. But the 160 acres of former hay A View from the Rooftop has been offering for over two decades in ground she and her husband, Jason Misik, Bernhardt is intimately familiar with the Minnesota-Wisconsin-northern Iowa re45, bought in 2016 is looking a little less what prime farmland looks like. She grew gion (pages 4 and 32), is led by established raw these days. Medicine Creek Farm up in southern Minnesota’s Martin County, farmers and offers opportunities for doing (www.medicinecreekfarm.com) now has a one of the top producers of corn and soythe kind of networking that supports new ag house, outbuildings, water lines, and yes, beans in the state (its many CAFOs also put operations as they get up and running. The some permanent fencing, all constructed by it in the top tier as a hog producer). She was Journeyperson course takes a deeper dive the beginning farmers. It’s also home to a born when the 1980s farm crisis was raging, into whole farm planning strategies like Hothriving pasture-based direct-to-consumer and her father quit farming fulltime by the listic Management, and sets participants up livestock enterprise. A lot of sweat equity time Bernhardt was 5. She received a clear with mentors, as well as an instructor with has gone into this transformation. And backmessage at a young age: it’s next to imposing up that hard work is the strong belief on sible to get started and make a financial Raw Deal, see page 19… the part of Bernhardt and Misik that sub-par
Farm Beginnings
A Raw Deal on Farmland
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No. 1, 2021
The Land Stewardship Letter
