Wisconsin's "Kernza Queen" Dr. Nicole Tautges is Featured in New Kernza Education Video Series
- Kriss Marion
- Nov 25
- 2 min read
A new video series was recently released by The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) to help farmers establish Kernza in their farm portfolios. The first video in the series features Michael Fields Agricultural Institute's Research Director Dr. Nicole Tautges, and includes a cameo of our Research Technician Nolan Burkard. This video describes in detail how to set up your seed drill for planting Kernza and the best techniques for getting good germination in the Upper Midwest. Check it out!
Planting video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFGgPKEWO9o
Harvesting video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7TH9IgxqjQ
Dual use video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK8s4jZCAjY
These videos can be accessed through this landing page, along with a collection of LSP podcasts on Kernza: https://landstewardshipproject.org/kernza/
This series of videos was produced by Greener Pastures in collaboration with KernzaCAP, the Land Stewardship Project, the Forever Green Initiative, and Green Lands Blue Waters. Michael Fields Agricultural Institute is a partner in KernzaCap. For more on how to make Kernza part of your farming operation, check out https://kernza.org/growers for fact sheets and other resources.
This work is supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Sustainable Agricultural Systems Coordinated Agricultural Project (SAS-CAP), project award no. 2020-68012-31934 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.
Kernza CAP is ending early next year. Here is a link to the UMN Digital Conservancy for the project:
TO SUPPORT DR. TAUTGES' CONTINUED RESEARCH AND MARKET DEVELOPMENT FOR KERNZA AND OTHER IMPORTANT ALTERNATIVE FOOD-GRADE GRAINS, DONATE TO OUR 2025 ANNUAL APPEAL.
Funding for research on non-commodity crops is in very short supply. We are trying to diversify our funding streams to be less reliant on government and academic grants. Can you help us fund the future?
"Since perennial grains are a nearly-new agricultural concept, we have to essentially start from square 1 with identifying optimal management practices, and that process starts with testing at a lot of different sites and soils. This project gave us the opportunity to replicate complex trials at 6 experimental sites, which let us disentangle management, genetic, and site (climate and soil) effects. I, at MFAI, was honored to host a research site for this work. My colleagues show in this paper the critical periods for determining summer and fall yields, which is crucial to tailoring management practices and interventions to increase yields. This fundamental work will allow us to create more productive Kernza systems."
-Dr. Nicole Tautges
From a Peer-Reviewed Paper published in June 2025:
Here is a link to Dr. Tautges' Google Scholar page with the list of all the papers she has published:
Download Dr. Tautges' Kernza Grower Guide for FREE or purchase a paper copy from our Fields Best Small Batch Grains store.
You can also support the work by purchasing Kernza flour and baking mixes from the Fields Best Shop.
Comments