State and federal agriculture agencies and partnering organizations today announced its upcoming virtual Wisconsin Cover Crop Conference is free for participants who pre-register. The fourth annual conference will take place on February 10‒11, 2021, and will be presented through the Microsoft Zoom video conferencing platform.
On February 10, three previous keynote speakers will return. Well-known soil health and cover crop experts, Barry Fisher, Blake Vince and Rick Clark will give specialized presentations and updates.
On February 11, the virtual conference will feature for the first time as a keynote speaker, Loran Steinlage, of Flolo Farms in Iowa. Loran will discuss profit through diversification and is know for his use of companion/relay cropping and growing diverse crops including winter wheat, malting barley and buckwheat, as well as corn, soybeans and cereal rye.
Other conference topics will include incorporating cover crops as a soil health management system, using covers for weed management, growing small grains and grazing cover crops.
Moving the conference to a virtual event and hosting for free will enable all farmers interested in cover crops to attend and learn how to implement soil health systems that can protect the natural resources we all depend on. “Last year’s conference was a huge success, with over 400 attendees—while we can’t get together in person, we hope to reach more people with the virtual format and new, specialized content,” said Brian Briski, NRCS Area Resource Conservationist.
The University of Wisconsin‒Extension; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service; Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection; Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; the Nature Conservancy and Michael Fields Agricultural Institute are all very proud to partner, hosting this event for farmers.
For more information and to pre-register, please visit: http://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/covercrop/.
Pre-registration is required by February 8, 2020.
