Soil Health Tour: Full Season Cover Crops
Thursday, September 16, 2010 - 3:00 PM
Black Leg Ranch & Menoken Farm
Burleigh County Soil Conservation District (BCSCD)
The Burleigh County Soil Conservation District will be hosting “It's All About Balance” soil health tour on Thursday, September 16, 2010 near McKenzie, ND, beginning at 3 p.m.
Tour activities include:
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Holistic Resource Management (Black Leg Ranch- Jerry, Jeremy, Jay, & Jayce Doan), winter grazing,wildlife, water quality, grassland recovery time, and high stock densities.
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Advancing Soil Health will be addressed at the Menoken Farm, including biological nutrient, livestock as a tool, cropping systems with cover crops, full season cover crops, cover crop mixes, and cover crop seed production and seed saving.
The invitation to attend is extended to farmers/ranchers, spouses and managing partners. Please notify the office at 701-250-4518, Ext. 3, by July 6 with the number attending so appropriate plans can be made.
A meal will be held at Menoken Farm. RSVP to 701-250-4518, Ext. 3 by September 9th.
The tour will be drive-yourself-style. Pickups are recommended and car pooling is encouraged.
Directions: From I-94: Take the McKenzie Exit 176, go south 7 miles on 236th Street SE, turn west on 62nd Avenue SE and go 1.5 miles.
The Soil Health Tour is sponsored by the Burleigh County Soil Conservation District, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Dakota Prairies RC&D, Bismarck, N.D. Event details will be posted on the web at: BCSCD
Mark Your Calendar!
2011 Winter Conference
“Sustainability in a Changing World”
February 4th - 5th
Ramada Plaza Suites
Fargo, ND.
Speakers:
Gearld Fry, Bovine Engineering & Consulting
Micaela Colley, Organic Seed Alliance
Kevin Murphy, Washington State Univ. - Crop & Soil Sciences
Jane Mt. Pleasant, Cornell Univ. Horticulture Dept.
1:15 - 2:15 p.m. - Panel Discussion
Bob Martin (Bowdon Meat Processing)
Myron Lick (Ruso Ranch)
Steve Zwinger (Farm Breeders Club)
Grayson Hoberg (Marketing)
2:45 p.m. - Tour of Dakota Prairie Organic Flour - Grayson Hoberg
2010 Summer Tour II
Was held August 3rd
Bethany Prairie Farm - Wimbledon, N.D.
Tour hosts: Dick Lovestrand, Linda Grotberg and Dick Grotberg.
Event Schedule was:
9:30 – 10:00 a.m. - Registration at school house
10:00 – 11:30 a.m. - Field tours looking at cover crops and soils with Fred Aziz, Steve Zwinger, and Yvonne Lawley
11:30 – 1:00 p.m. - Local foods lunch and networking
A microscope, the soil quality test kit and a few other items that people can use to assess their own soil quality and information on the Web Soil Survey will be set up in the basement of the main house – Susan Samson-Liebig and Lance Duey, NRCS & Kris Nichols, ARS
1:00 - 1:15 p.m. - Farm Breeder Club - Steve Zwinger, CREC
2:00 – 3:15 p.m. - Oil Press Project – Paul Aakre, UMC and Dick Lovestrand
2010 Summer Tour III
Was held August 20th
Rapid City and Newell, S.D.
Rainfall simulator demo.
Event Schedule was:
8:00 - 9:00 a.m. (Mountain time) - High Tunnels for the Northern Great Plains - R.C. Ramkota & Rick Abrahamson, R.C. Best Western Ramkoa, Badlands Room
11:45 a.m. - Farm Breeders Club (FBC) presentation at church
Noon - 1:00 p.m. - Lunch
1:05-1:35 p.m. - Travel to Linda’s Gardens, Chester, S.D.
1:45 p.m. - Tour Linda's High Tunnel
Thank You to our Summer Tour Cosponsors, who help to make these tours possible! Major cosponsors helping to fund these tours are in bold. Please feel free to visit our Cosponsors websites:
Fundamentals of Organic Seed Production & Cover Crop Tour
August 4, 2010 Starting at 9:00 a.m.
NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center (CREC)
Learn how to create, preserve, and produce your own seed varieties on your farm or garden. Successful seed saving and seed production starts with good planning. We will cover basic seed growing and a variety of improvement skills including timing of planting, preventing cross-pollination, selecting for improved varieties, seed maturation and harvest, and seed-cleaning techniques. Whether you’ve saved seed before and want to learn more or are a complete beginner, this is a great to chance to learn about seed and connect with other farmers and gardeners who share a passion for seeds and seed saving.
The instructors for this course include:
Joel Reitin, Production Manager for Seeds of Change in New Mexico; Steve Zwinger, CREC Research Agronomist and owner of Prairie Seeds in Carrington, N.D.
Yvonne Lawley, CREC Research Agronomist; and Theresa Podoll, Interim Manager for the Family Farmers Seed Cooperative and a seed producer from Fullerton, N.D.
This one-day class is designed to provide organic farmers and gardeners interested in growing seed with resources and knowledge necessary to produce a commercial seed crop and/or save high-quality seed for on-farm and garden use. The basics of growing a seed crop organically and seed crop climatic considerations will be covered.
The class will include a seed cleaning and conditioning demonstration led by Reiten, and a tour of the cover crop variety trials at CREC and discussion on the market potential of cover crop seed led by Zwinger and Lawley. The target audience is organic farmers and gardeners interested in moving into seed production for on-farm use and/or sale as well as farmers with basic seed production experience seeking to refine their skills.
This class will emphasize:
•isolation distances for genetic purity
•horticultural management for the best seed yield and
quality
•adequate population size for genetic elasticity
•maintaining self- vs. cross-pollinated species
•optimum timing of maturation and harvest
•harvesting, processing, and storing seed
You can register for the workshop online or download the workshop brochure by visiting the Family Farmers Seed Cooperative’s Events webpage at: http://organicseedcoop.com/about/events (look for the links at the bottom of the page) or call Theresa Podoll at 701-883-4416.
The class is being sponsored by the Family Farmers Seed Cooperative, Organic Seed Alliance, NPSAS Farm Breeder Club, and FARRMS with funding support from USDA Rural Development Rural Business Enterprise Grant program.
Thank You!
To Those Who Attended the
2010 Winter Conference
Was held Feb. 9th thru Feb. 11th
Watertown Event Center
Watertown, S.D.
