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To farmers across Greater Minnesota familiar with annual rotations of corn and soybean crops, the words “perennial” and “grain” might seem like an odd pairing at first.
That was true for Alan Kraus, conservation program manager for the Cannon River Watershed Partnership in Southeast Minnesota, until he read about the development of Kernza in his local newspaper a few years ago. Kernza is the trademarked name owned by The Land Institute of grain harvested from improved varieties of a perennial grass called intermediate wheatgrass.
“It sounded fascinating to me — I had to learn as much as I could about this new crop,” Kraus said. “Once I did my research and connected with folks at the University of Minnesota who were working on this crop, it became clear we have a lot of wins with a grain like Kernza.”