2015 Western Slope Soil Health Conference: sustaining your soil health
Join the 5th Annual Western Slope Soil Health Conference taking place on January 30 & 31, 2015 at the Bill Heddles Recreation Center in Delta, CO. Learn how to put sustainable practices to work on farms, orchards, and smaller homesteads/gardens. This conference will present ways to increase organic matter in and the health of our soils through cover crops, green manure, grazing, compost, entomology, and other sustainable practices and features local and national speakers.
This conference will host nationally and locally recognized experts. Speakers include: George Whitten on holistic ranching and grazing/ Jonathan Lundgren an applied ecologist investigating ecologically based forms of managing insects and weeds / Kris Nichols on soil health and soil microbiology / and Karl Kupers on marketing sustainable agriculture. Local experts will participate on panel discussions.
$30 Early bird registration deadline is January 16, 2015 and is $40 after. Registration includes lunch. For agenda and registration form please visit: www.deltacountyed.org and click on Soil Health Conference or contact Delta County Economic Development, Inc. at 970-874-4492.
The Western Slopie Soil Health Conference is sponsored by The Gunnison Basin & Grand Valley Selenium Task Forces, Better Compost, Shavano Conservation District, and Cropworks with additional support from Tri-County Water Conservancy District, First Colorado National Bank and Delta County Memorial Hospital.
National presenters:
George Whitten and his wife, Julie Sullivan, manage and operate the San Juan Ranch and Blue Range Ranches near Saguache, Co. Since 1985, George has worked as a ranch consultant. His numerous consulting contracts as a range management and grazing specialist, are based on his holistic approach to rangeland and soil health on irrigated land. He actively works with several farmers and ranchers in Colorado and New Mexico to reintroduce grazing animals to farmland to improve soil biology and overall profitability for both enterprises.
Dr. Jonathan Lundgren is an agroecologist and Lead Research Entomologist at the USDA-ARS laboratory in Brookings, South Dakota. He received his PhD in Entomology from the University of Illinois in 2004. Lundgren’s research program focuses on assessing the ecological risk of pest management strategies and developing sustainable, long-term solutions for managing pests in cropland. His ecological re-search focuses heavily on conserving healthy biological communities within agro-ecosystems by reducing disturbance and increasing biodiversity within cropland.
Kris Nichols has been a Soil Microbiologist with the USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory (NGPRL) in Mandan, ND, for over seven years she has a Ph.D. in Soil Science from the University of Mary-land. Since 1993, she has studied arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi – a plant-root symbiont. Her most recent work involves the investigation of glomalin – a sub-stance produced by AM fungi. Kris has been examining the impacts of management such as crop rotation, tillage practices, organic production, cover crops, and live-stock grazing on soil aggregation, water relationships, and glomalin.
Karl Kupers is the co-founder of Shepherd’s Grain. Shepard’s Grain is a group of Columbia Plateau Producers that sustainably grow and market high end wheat. The members of Shepherd’s Grain all share the same desire to develop a business that is economically sustainable without depending on federal commodity subsidies, and to minimize soil erosion and degradation by developing cropping systems that address the region’s major agro-ecological challenges.
Lunchtime speakers include:
Dr. Perry Cabot is an Extension Specialist and Faculty Affiliate of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University and will speak on his recent water and irrigation research. He received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering and Land Resources from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, his M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois, and his B.S. in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University. He has authored several academic papers on subjects related to agricultural practices and their environmental impacts. He has conducted international work pertaining to water supply and purification project in Rwanda through Engineers Without Borders. Dr. Cabot is also a Fulbright Scholar (2009) in collaboration with the University of Zambia on research related to soil sustainability, irrigation practices, and bioenergy cropping.
Brendon Rockey, Rockey Farms, is a third generation potato farmer from Center, Colorado. He, along with his brother, raises 250 acres of specialty potatoes for both certified seed sales and for the fresh market. Rockey Farms has always been known for their innovation and leadership. They were the first certified seed producers in Colorado to build their own tissue culture lab and greenhouse for mini-tuber production, and they were the first to grow fingerling potatoes in the U.S. They continue to redefine how potatoes can be raised, by focusing on soil health. They currently rotate their potato crop with a multi-species green manure crop, and they have implemented companion cropping in their potatoes this year. By focusing on the soil health, they have been able to maintain yield, drastically improve the quality of the crop, and they have done it all while decreasing the inputs that are required to grow the crop. They no longer use any commercial fertilizer, and they have eli minated their dependency on toxic chemicals. Their farm has become a regular stop for soil health tours, as they believe strongly in sharing the knowledge they have gained.
No peaches in the winter but check out the Solar Roasted Coffee, organic foods and lots of bulk flours and foods. Happy New Year!
www.hardinsnaturalfoods.com
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