Digging deep shows evidence of improved practices
Soil pits are important tools to demonstrate how techniques such as reduced tillage and the use of cover crops help nurture and fortify soil structure, preventing erosion while retaining nutrients and organic matter. With a pit, a producer can clearly see improvements to a soil’s structure.
In Goodhue County, at the end of May 2025, Extension Educator Bailey Tangen organized a Planting Green event, and invited former Minnesota State Soil Scientist John Beck to share his expertise.
Despite his recent retirement, Beck remained passionate about teaching the benefits of regenerative agriculture and improved soil health practices to Minnesota farmers. So he was presented with a special retirement gift: A spade signed by fans and friends.
“A sharp tile spade helps best to shave the face of the bed,” said Beck. “My former colleagues knew me really well.”
Highlights
- Larry Enfield, a Master Gardener volunteer, donated more than 600 vegetable plants grown in his own greenhouse to a community center, providing fresh, healthy food to many local families who use the center’s food shelf.
- The Aspelund Ever-Readies 4-H Club combatted rising costs of groceries as part of the 4-H Food Partner Challenge. They monitored prices of staple items and signed up to deliver those items to their local food shelves.
- U of M Farm Family of the Year: The Peterson family
- Minnesota Master Naturalist training: Big Rivers, Big Woods biome (Pine Island)
- People don’t have to be mental health professionals to support friends, neighbors and colleagues in times of need. But they may not know how. Extension helped bridge this gap by providing in-person Changing Our Mental and Emotional Trajectory (COMET) training in Zumbrota, Kenyon and Pine Island.
- RSDP impact: With support from a CERTs Seed Grant, energy-efficiency assessments of Northcountry Cooperative Foundation’s Sunrise Villa Cooperative in Cannon Falls, in collaboration with Slipstream, was used to develop a scalable energy efficiency rehab loan and grant program for manufactured/mobile homeowners.
- Extension staff co-facilitated the creation of a democratic process for communities to decide how to use their opioid settlement funds in Goodhue County.
Goodhue County office
Extension has 14 regional offices supporting all 87 counties in Minnesota.
Goodhue County partners with Extension to deliver practical education and research you can use at home, at work and in your community. More about Extension in our county.
About the Minnesota 87 project
Spend time in any Minnesota county, and you will almost certainly encounter University of Minnesota Extension. Our faculty and staff, volunteers, participants, alumni and partners are woven into the fabric of rural, urban and suburban Minnesota life. This project showcases Extension in action through photos, stories and a sampling of the many ways Extension has touched the lives of people in every county.