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Conservis joins Minnesota water quality certification effort

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is partnering with an ag data company to improve water quality in the state.

Commissioner Dave Frederickson says the public-private partnership with Conservis supports the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program.

“We’re after acres in the program.  It’s the old story about ‘my boat is so small and the sea is so large.’  When you look across the state, you think ‘this is overwhelming.  Will we get there?’  As long as the trajectory is going on the right path, we’re going to get there.”

The program has enrolled more than 200 Minnesota farms totaling close to 115,000 acres.

Conservis CEO Pat Christie tells Brownfield his company will be automating the certification program requirements.

“We’re a whole-farm system, so we’re already capturing a lot of this information.  Some of it is as simple as helping build a reporting engine that makes it literally drag-and-drop simple.”

Conservis has committed to enrolling an additional 100,000 acres into the program through its network of farmers.

In May, the Minnesota Department of Ag signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Land O’Lakes to help promote the Ag Water Quality Certification Program.

Brownfield spoke to Frederickson and Christie at FarmFest earlier this month.