Programming, Field Activities Underway at Fields of Sinsinawa
In March, the Fields of Sinsinawa Land Committee recommended, and the Steering Committee approved, bringing on Rick Bieber to be a Soil Stewardship Advisor, aka the “voice of the soils,” at Fields of Sinsinawa.
Rick is a retired farmer and rancher from Trail City, South Dakota, who began no-tilling in the 1980s and added cover crops to his operation in the 1990s. Livestock has always been part of his operation, and he has raised everything from bunnies and chickens to pigs, goats, sheep, pheasants, and cattle. He’s also raised dogs and has at different times had a pet skunk and a pet fox.
Rick gets very excited about the biodiversity he sees at his farm as a result of his soil care practices, whether it’s the increased protozoa that shows up on soil tests or mountain lions and wolves that appear on the game camera.
Though his initial motivations for changing practices were financial in nature, the benefits of putting the needs of the soil first became clear over the years and he became a passionate soil caretaker.
Rick has been invited to speak multiple times in more than 20 countries around the world. He was recently asked to attend the World to Rebuild Rural Ukraine agricultural tour, taking place June 26 to July 11, where he will evaluate agricultural challenges on seven farms and present potential solutions for the farmers there.
Rick has been on site at Fields of Sinsinawa and has begun getting to know the tenants and other farmers in the area.
On April 29, he did a short presentation at a pop-up event held with some of the neighboring farmers. About 20 people attended the rainy-day event, and besides sharing his background, Rick talked about some of the preliminary soil and water testing he had done leading up to the event and discussed the mission and vision of Fields of Sinsinawa.
In early May, Rick met with tenants Bernie and Simon Runde and Aaron and Troy Leibfried as well as Sinsinawa Horticulturist Laurana Snyder to devise an adaptive management grazing plan for the pastures at Fields of Sinsinawa.
On May 6, the tenants brought a total of 30 heifers to the Mound and turned them out into the first of approximately 15-20 paddocks that will be used throughout the season. They anticipate taking about 45 days to get across them all before repeating the cycle.
“The intent is to keep proper nutrition in front of all the girls yet making them ‘clean their plates’ and eat the undesirables, i.e. the weeds, as well as the more palatable plants,” Rick says.
With adaptive management grazing, producers can generally increase their stocking rates, thereby improving profitability. The animal impact will lessen the invasive weeds, increasing native plants and awakening the soil biology that was once there, along with increasing water infiltration rates and other soil functions.
This year’s grazing plan represents a 20% increase in stocking rates over the 2023 rates. Rick believes they will be able to run at a 50 percent increase in 2025 (38 animals).
Rick recognizes that caring for the soils is a team effort and welcomes all who wish to deepen their connection to the soils at Fields of Sinsinawa. Rick can be reached at 2tillornot2@westriv.com.
Meet the Tenants
Bernard Runde
Simon Runde
Aaron Leibfried
Troy Leibfried
The amazing tenants who farm on the Mound have been leasing the land since 2009. Two father-and- son teams — Bernard and Simon Runde and Aaron and Troy Leibfried — share the lease on the crop land and pastures. Organic dairy farmers, the Rundes and Leibfrieds use all the crops they grow at the Mound to feed their herds of Holsteins, and they produce milk for Organic Valley.
Bernie has been farming organically since 2003 and Aaron since 2007. Bernie and Aaron were asked separately to take on the Sinsinawa Mound farmland when the sisters wanted to switch the farm over to organic production. They decided to farm it together as it was too much land for either operation individually at the time.
Aaron says the partnership is working great.
“The Sinsinawa acres are our most productive land, and it’s nice to work it together” he says, adding that one of the advantages to farming the Mound is that they’re able to grow wheat there.
“We can’t grow wheat on our home farm because of the rotation,” he says. “So it works out well there.”
Both operations have received various awards and recognition over the years. Bernie Runde received the Milk Quality Award from Organic Valley in 2008. In 2021, the Leibfrieds were named the Telegraph Herald Farm Family of the Year in the organic farm category.
For Troy, the Sinsinawa land is just part of his lifelong landscape.
“We’ve been farming that land since I was seven years old, so I guess I just consider it part of the farm,” he says.
Troy began diversifying his responsibilities in 2023 when he purchased a beef operation. It had been part of a relative’s farm, and his parents helped him until he was able to secure financing. At 23 years old, he says he knows he’s fortunate to have had the opportunity to take on a new enterprise.
“When I was in school, there were a lot of 21-year- olds who would have loved to be doing what I’m doing, but they didn’t have anyone in the industry.
The Rundes and Leibfrieds are very excited about the interaction they’ve been having with the Fields of Sinsinawa. They’ve been working closely with Rick Bieber, who was brought on in early 2024 to consult with the tenant farmers and take a holistic view of the entire property to identify opportunities for trying new practices, such as the adaptive management grazing they’ve been doing with their bred heifers on pastures at the Mound.
“It’s working out great, and I’m excited for what we’re doing now,” Aaron says. “We’re implementing the ideas of the Fields of Sinsinawa on our own operation, Rick has been giving Troy advice, and we’re rotationally grazing around here now also since we started it with the heifers.”
Rick is also thrilled with the partnership so far.
“We couldn’t ask for better farmers to work with,” he says. “The Rundes and Leibfrieds are fantastic soil caretakers and we’re very happy with the way everything is going.”
Turns Out it Wasn’t an Alien Inspection Station After All…
In early May, visitors to Sinsinawa Mound might have seen a curious sight. Several silver enclosures, resembling bio-hazard containment structures or UFO inspection sites, appeared along the landscape, only to disappear again a couple of days later. Men in protective suits and rubber boots monitored instruments and peered into buckets. What were they hiding?!?
Turns out Dennis Busch with UW-Platteville’s Pioneer Farm and the Water Resources Monitoring Group, along with his associates Will Keast and Mike Steffel, were on site conducting water infiltration tests in three different fields – a field with winter wheat growing on it, a recently tilled alfalfa field, and a pasture/prairie.
The enclosures were set up on slopes and simulated rain was applied within the enclosures at a rate of 2.75 inches per hour. Excess water that didn’t immediately soak into the ground was collected so that infiltration and erosion rates could be measured accurately. This process was then repeated on the next day so that the soil could be evaluated under saturated conditions.
The aim of the testing is to help evaluate the functioning of the soils in some of the different phases of Sinsinawa’s land management ecosystem and guide future management decisions. Soils that infiltrate water at a higher rate are generally considered healthier and have higher soil organic matter levels and more macropores, which increases soil stability and reduces erosion and runoff.
It may not be as gossip-worthy as UFOs or bio- hazard containment, perhaps, but great progress on capturing baseline ecosystem data for Fields of Sinsinawa! Results of the testing will be available at a later date.
Upcoming Events – SNEAK PEEK!
The Fields of Sinsinawa programming team is in the process of planning several learning and demonstration events over the coming months. Please stay tuned for more information about the following:
Pop-up events
Throughout the season, the Land Committee intends to hold a variety of demonstration events to showcase practices that are being implemented.
They will be held when field conditions are appropriate. Some of the topics to be covered include using biological primers after wheat harvest and chopping silage, interseeding cover crops into corn, implementing adaptive management grazing, and more.
Annual Conference
To celebrate this year’s progress and activities, Fields of Sinsinawa will host our first annual Soul of the Soil Conference: Connecting U and I. The conference will feature guest speakers addressing regenerative ag principles, farmer panels, a visioning session for future partnerships, a special workshop for new farmer-led groups, updates on the Fields of Sinsinawa’s first year activities, a soil pit, tours of the Dave Brandt memorial corn field, adaptive management grazing demo, and more.
Ecdysis 1000 Farms Initiative
Jonathan Lundgren’s Ecdysis Foundation, based in Estelline, SD, is conducting one of the most ambitious agroecology experiments ever, researching regenerative systems across North America. According to their website, the 1000 Farms Initiative “generates full site inventories in various stages of regenerative adoption… to show producers the health of their land, how their land compares with others, and how to incorporate regenerative methods into their agricultural production…”
- The 1000 Farms Initiative assessment will measure:
- Soil chemical and physical properties, including soil carbon Soil microbiology
- Water dynamics
- Plant communities, diversity, and biomass
- Invertebrate diversity and distribution
- Pests, both plant pathogens and insect pests
- Yields and nutrient analyses
- Economics and net profitability
Fields of Sinsinawa will serve as a hub for the Ecdysis team for a week as they survey fields at Sinsinawa as well as at a number of other neighboring operations in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa. The Ecdysis team will put on a field event during their time here to highlight the interconnectedness of the biological communities in question, including humans.
Fields of Sinsinawa in the News
AgEmerge Podcast
One year after Dave Brandt’s death, AgEmerge released a podcast featuring an interview host Monte Bottens recorded with Dave back in 2022. We’re grateful to have the chance to hear his thoughts and insights today. Thanks to AgEmerge for releasing this interview.
NCR Story
An April 18 article in the National Catholic Reporter featured the farming activities at Sinsinawa Mound.
While the bulk of the article highlights Sinsinawa Mound Collaborative Farmers Andie Donnan and Ashley Nieses of Sandhill Farm, it also reported on the Fields of Sinsinawa Farmer-Led Learning Center with quotes from Sister Julie Schwab and Beth Baranski.
The article quotes Sister Julie on farmers learning from each other about more efficient ways of producing crops:
“The new goal for farmers is how we can better care for the soil and at the same time, take money to the bank,” Schwab said. “If farming practices can help family farms to continue and to be successful, that’s a mission match for us. We were founded as an educational congregation. The farmer-led center is definitely a mission match for us as educators.”
Fundraising Campaign Update
The Fields of Sinsinawa Fund Development team kicked off a fundraising campaign this spring, aiming to raise $500,000 for the first two years of operations. Sister Sheila Fitzgerald and Beth Baranski spearheaded the production of a case statement brochure explaining the mission, vision, and future needs of the organization.
Efforts are ongoing to reach out to potential funders for donations. In a parallel effort, another team has begun researching and applying for grant opportunities. To date, about $75,000 has been donated to the organization!
