Renville County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) is a local unit of government that manages and directs natural resource management programs for the conservation of soil, water, and other natural resources. Through this channel we hope to provide useful practices and programs to our farmers/landowners, a greater understanding of natural processes to our local youth, and a valuable resource for the Renville County Community.
By commenting/posting you agree to our media comment policy, found on our website.
www.renvilleswcd.com/media-policy
Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Renville County SWCD discuss the 70th anniversary of conservation efforts in Renville County, highlighting past events and the motivations of those serving, in this interview episode.
17 May 2025
Episode 10 - Importance of Diversity
Join Renville SWCD district administrator, Holly Hatlewick, as she chats with farmer and seed dealer, TJ Kartes, about his experience with soil health practices personally and professionally. In this episode TJ will discuss:
Diversifying cover crops and cash crops
Keep it simple – each cover needs a purpose
Cereal cover crops before cereal cash crops
Keeping your purpose in mind when planting cover crops
Nutrient cycling in above ground biomass
Occasional soil and biomass testing to build personal dataset
Landlord and tenant relationships around soil health
Creative seeding solution
19 Apr 2025
Episode 9 - Context
Join District Manager, Holly Hatlewick, as she talks with Phil and Robin Smith about their journey from a conventional farming system to a regenerative farming system in their 45 years of operating the farm! Discover how overtime Phil and Robin have added in soil health practices since 1992 as they have made agronomic and economic sense on their land. Phil and Robin will discuss:
- Unconventional livestock on their farm
- How to diversify from a corn and soybean rotation
- Equipment transitions from deep tillage to all no-till crops
- Changes to chemical necessities and application
- Mindset of yield maximization or profit maximization
Soil structure and health changes shaping agronomic decisions
Adding cover crops to unlock deeper soil health benefits
- Adjusting management for corn and cover crop residue
25 Nov 2024
Episode 8: Mentorship
Pamela Winzenburg chats with Grant and Dawn Breitkreutz of Stony Creek Farms about their 20-year transition to regenerative agriculture and the mentors who guided them along the way.
18 Nov 2024
Episode 7: Integrating Livestock
Join Kyle, Brad, and Naomi Freyholtz as they talk in depth about how they have introduced livestock and many other soil health principles into their row crops and garden. In this episode you will hear them discuss:
• Current row crop practices & how they translated that to their garden
• Hogo-culture gardening
• Livestock & small grain opportunities
• Earthworm impacts & residue
• Cover crop mixes in row crops and garden
• Nutrients and soil testing
• Soil and plant resiliancy
• Future plans on the operation
4 Nov 2024
Episode 6: Advising Soil Health Changes
Join Kyle as he talks with Joe Ailts, an independent agronomist from Northwest Wisconsin, with a passion for soil health. Kyle and Joe will discuss:
Changes in soybean's relative maturity to implement more cover crops
Biological activity and brassica cover crop interactions
Equipment changes
New markets & expanding crop rotations
Nitrogen credits in cover crop biomass
Harvesting sunlight
Increasing education and experience
28 Oct 2024
Episode 5: Diversity
Join Holly Hatlewick as she talks with local grower Macius Schreoder about our third principal of soil health: diversity. Macius isn't afraid of any challenges when it comes to trying something new on his operation, especially when it comes to diversifying his cover crop mixes. Throughout the episode he will talk about:
His 19 species mix cover crop planted this year
His crop rotation
Improved water infiltration
Biostrips
Tips to include more diversity in your crop rotation
13 May 2024
Episode 4: Soil Biology
Join us as we take a pause on the Soil Health Principles and gain a better understanding of the soil biology for your fields, garden, or even your flower beds. In this episode Kyle, Holly, and Pamela will discuss
What is soil biology?
Similar ideas of body biology and soil biology
Reliance on synthetic vs. building up a natural system
Mindset change from conventional to regenerative
Rainfall infiltration & how biology is affected by water retention
“Soil Your Undies”
Unintended biological benefits of a regenerative system
6 May 2024
Episode 3: Soil Armor
Local grower, Erik Dean, talks about his journey from conventional farming to soil health focused farming in South Central MN. Erik has figured out how to utilize cover crop biomass and leaving crop residue on the surface to increase his soil armor.
Erik will discuss:
Conventional till to vertical till to strip till to no till and cover crops
Diversified crop rotation
Residue management
Fertilizer management
Planting & Green seeing
Compaction & soil structure
Water infiltration
Spring delays
Trial and errors
29 Apr 2024
Episode 2: The Living Root
Today we will meet Heidi from the Hawk Creek Watershed project and our first grower, Dean Dambroten. Dean is the 'financial manager' of the family farm in Western Renville County and is the 4th generation to farm the land. Dean will discuss the operation's:
Reduced inputs with switching to strip-till from conventional tillage
Fertilizer management
Interseeding in young corn and dormant seeding after corn
Residue management
Weather resiliency to drought and rain
Return on investment & yields
Equipment changes
Green seeding
Diversity in crop rotations
Planting concerns
23 Apr 2024
Episode 1: Introduction
Welcome to the Renville County Soil and Water Conservation District’s premiere episode of Armored Soil! This is the first of four episodes that we will be releasing in Spring of 2024, with hopes to release the rest of this series this summer and fall. In this episode we will
meet the SWCD team and our passion for
conservation
learn what the SWCD is and how it can help
landowners and operators
discuss what the historic land use in
Renville County was & how that has changed
discuss soil carbon and organic matter
introduce the six soil health principles
perform a slake test on 4 soil samples, all from
different operations
By commenting or posting you agree to our media policy, found on our website. www.renvilleswcd.com/media-policy
26 Mar 2024
Introducing Armored Soil...and the rest of the soil health principles
In season one of Armored Soil, we will introduce you to who the Renville County SWCD is and some of our partners, but most importantly we'll talk soil health. This season will focus on the basics-the sixth principles of a healthy soil and talk with real area farmers who have implemented these practices in their operation. Stay tuned for our first drop coming early spring!
By commenting/posting you agree to our media comment policy, found on our website.
https://www.renvilleswcd.com/media-policy
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
4,350
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 28 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
18
Social presence
0
YouTube
68
Engagement
27
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