Cover Crop Forum Next Week

Next Tuesday, Feb 18th there is an opportunity for farmers in the Pacific Northwest to attend a local session which will feature live-streaming video of the National Conference on Cover Crops and Soil Health in Omaha, Nebraska. In addition to Howard Buffet speaking and several other national ag leaders, there will also be a panel of four experts farmers using cover crops.

Marlon Winger Idaho State Agronomist with the Natural Resource Conservation Service NRCS explains what will be happening at the Boise location.

Winger: “We’re planning on having an hour or so discussion after the farmer panel talks from Omaha and there we will describe our four methods of improving soil health and probably have a little discussion on cover crops and tillage practices or the lack of tillage practices.”

Winger shares what the four methods for improving soil health are

Winger: “Managing soil health — we have to create the most favorable habitat possible for the soil food web by four main principles. Number one: minimize soil disturbance. Number two: maximize the diversity of plants in our crop rotation — and you could use cover crops there. Number three: keep a living root in the soil as much as possible. And lastly keep the soil covered with plants and plant residue at all times.”

In each of our three Pacific Northwest states there will be several different locations, each with their own schedule of the day’s events. You can contact your local Natural Resource Conservation office to learn more details.