No Till Notes: 'Crop and Soil Health Educational Meetings'

As the New Year begins so do new opportunities for educational meetings during the next couple of months for agricultural producers in our area. I always make it a point to attend as many of these meetings as I can to further my education in agriculture and no-till crop production. 

I would encourage everyone involved in production agriculture to attend these meetings. Agriculture is constantly changing and these meetings are a great place to learn about new technologies, marketing opportunities, crop production, and the opportunity to visit with other producers from around our region.

There have been a few new meetings added to the Stateline Producers field pea and edible bean production and marketing meetings I listed in last week’s article. Additional meetings were added for Bayard on Jan. 28. An additional meeting will be held in Gering on Jan. 29 at the Stateline Producers office beginning at 9:00 a.m.  The meeting in Alliance has been changed to Feb. 19 at the Alliance Public Library beginning at 9:30 a.m.    

The first regional no-till winter conference meeting is the No-till on the Plains winter conference. This meeting is scheduled for Jan. 28-29 in Salina, Kansas. This two-day meeting will feature speakers from around the world on various topics of interest concerning no-till crop production. 

The following day, on Jan. 30, is the Agriculture Innovative Minds symposium as part of the No-till on the Plains winter conference. This session will feature Dr. Dwayne Beck and Dr. Ray Ward, both longtime supporters of no-till crop production. I think this will be a very educational and interesting meeting with these two internationally recognized supporters of no-till crop production.  

The 2014 High Plains No-Till Conference will take place on Feb. 4-5 in Burlington, Colo. The CCTA has done a tremendous job of building this winter conference into one of the premier winter conferences in our region. 

CCTA has lined up an excellent list of speakers again for this year’s conference. The keynote speakers will be Gabe Brown and Dr. Jill Clapperton. This conference has become so popular for regional agricultural producers that the registration has been limited to 550 producers this year. 

The Natural Resources and Conservation Service in Holyoke, Colo. will be hosting a one day winter meeting titled “The Farming Evolution: Where do You Fit?”  The meeting is scheduled for Feb. 13. Numerous topics will be presented including weed control strategies, soil health economics, technology and how to use it in the field, along with a producer panel consisting of several excellent no-till crop producers in our region.

The Panhandle No-till Partnership will be hosting the annual winter conference in Gering at the Gering Civic Center on Feb. 26- 27. PNTP has once again assembled an excellent lineup of speakers who will cover numerous topics relevant to no-till crop production in the region.