No-till Notes: ‘Regional No-Till meetings’

There a couple large regional no- till meetings coming up that I’d like to talk to you about. I think it is very important for a producer who is considering adopting or has adopted no-till farming practices to attend. These meetings bring in speakers from around the region, country, and world to talk about the latest updates and trends in no-till crop production.

These meetings are an incredible place to network with other no-till producers. You will also gain a larger perspective on the possibilities of no-till crop production. These meetings will help you look at where your operation is at with no-till and where your operation can head into the future. I can’t over emphasize the educational value of attending these meetings. I go to every meeting that I can fit into my schedule and always leave feeling it was time well spent. Even after 20 years of attending these types of meetings I always leave having learned something that I can bring home to our farm.

The first of these meetings on the schedule is the 13th Annual No till On the Plains Winter Conference. This meeting is held in Salina, Kansas at the Bicentennial Center and is scheduled for January 29th and 30th, 2013. You can register for this conference by calling No till On the Plains at 1-888-330-5142 or by visiting their website at notill.org.

No Till on the Plains always has a great speaker agenda that includes speakers from our region as well as international speakers from Canada, South America, Europe, and Australia. While attending, a person will get to hear how producers and researchers from our region and around the world are looking to improve no-till crop production. The topics these speakers cover will directly relate to your operation back home.

The next regional no-till meeting is in Burlington, Colorado on February 5th, and 6th, 2013. The Colorado Conservation Tillage Association (CCTA) has organized the High Plains No Till Winter Conference since 1988. Their goal has been to promote water and soil conservation by sponsoring this conference each year.

The CCTA has an outstanding speaker agenda again this year. Their keynote speakers are Phil Needham, a high yielding winter wheat consultant, and Dr. Kris Nichols, a soil microbiologist with Agricultural Research Service, Mandan, North Dakota. The conference will feature speakers covering topics on crop rotation, soil health, grazing forage crops, limited irrigation, machinery, the weather forecast for 2013, and numerous other topics of interest. If you would like to register for this event, please go to highplainsnotill.com, or call Becky Ravencamp at 719-740-0715. I’ll look forward to seeing you at these educational no-till conferences.