This year, we want to double our attendees at field days and workshops. We are calling it "Plus One." For each field day coming up, please consider bringing someone with you who is interested in soil health practices like reducing tillage, incorporating cover crops, managing salinity and whole systems. Maybe it's your neighbor who is asking questions about what you're doing, or your lender or insurance provider. Use this as an opportunity to learn and share information together.
I'm going to live by this "Plus One" idea this summer, too, whenever I head out to demonstration sites or to visit farmers. I'll bring colleagues from campus who are interested in what we're doing, or people I know in Fargo who may want to learn more about agriculture. The whole idea is to get more people interested in soil health - whether they will use the practices on their own farms or make it easier for farmers to use soil health-building practices.
For anyone who has not attended a soil health event before, consider this your invitation. Our field days and workshops are geared towards small discussion - so you will get information from NDSU researchers, extension specialists and students alongside farmers, consultants and others in the industry.
No one judges anyone at our meetings. I know that may be hard to believe, but we are all learning together and it helps everyone to talk about different ideas and questions. You never know where you'll get that next idea.
We have a couple field tours coming up:
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June 28: Walsh County Soil Health Extravaganza Tour, Park River, N.D. On this tour, we'll talk about sodic and saline soil management, cover crops, iron deficiency chlorosis, reducing tillage and alternative uses for conservation acres. The detailed agenda and registration are online at ndsu.edu/soilhealth. Go to the "EVENTS" tab and select "June 28 Walsh Co Tour."
July 25-26: The Soil Health Bus Tour. We are basing this tour out of Valley City, N.D., and capping it at 100 people. We are about half full, so sign up soon. On July 25, we will be visiting the Thilmony Farm in Valley City. Dave Franzen (NDSU), John Breker (AgVise), Marisol Berti (NDSU), Caley Gasch (NDSU) and I will present on fertility recommendations and testing, alfalfa intercropping in corn and decomposition for nutrient release.
Then we will travel to the Hoenhause Farm in Lisbon, N.D. Here we will check out full season cover crops for grazing, interseeding corn, determining a healthy soil and Conservation Reserve Program conversion. Kevin Sedivec (NDSU), Caley Gasch, Marisol Berti, Aaron Daigh (NDSU), Luke Ressler (NDSU) and I will all be there to share information.
On July 26, we head to Jamestown, N.D., to visit the Wagner and Trautman Farms. We'll take a look at salinity management using crop selection, cover crops along with pest and weed management. We'll also talk about cover crops in rotation, interseeding and other approaches. Lee Briese and Allie Marks (Centrol Ag), Jason Harmon (NDSU), Caley Gasch and I will be there to share ideas. Register and check out the agenda online: nsdu.edu/soilheatlh. Go to the "EVENTS" tab, then select "July 25-26 Soil Health Bus Tour."
Hopefully we will see you and one of your friends this summer at the tours - the time is now to get more information! Follow me on Twitter also to get more information about tours and soil health: @NDSUsoilhealth
