Wednesday February 19 –

Everything starts with the soil. Our local soil team will give a soils demonstration. You can start to compare your soil with the examples.

Jimmy Emmons is an Oklahoma farmer, Soil Health Champion and leads by example. Emmons incorporates cover crop rotations on his cropland. His skeptical landlords changed their opinion after seeing the positive results on the land. Learn why Jimmy says, “I’m a Recovering Tillage Addict” and “Long Live the Soil!”.

Julie Peterson is an Assistant Professor of Entomology from the University of Nebraska. She will discuss her studies of pollinator habitat and the positive effects on the cash crops. “Conservation of Beneficial Insects & Management of Pest Insects”

Coming home for the weekend is Beth Reynolds. She grew up in the Holyoke area and specializes in Beef production in Iowa at the Iowa Beef Center with Iowa State University. Reynolds will engage the audience in the topic of Capturing Cover Crop Value with Cattle.

Virginia Jin, PhD – USDA-ARS Research Soil Scientist will share her research “Soil Health: Expectations and Evidence.” The discussion will center around different management practices on various components of soil health.

Thursday February 20 -

Dwayne Beck, PhD, learned by doing as the Research Manager at Dakota Lakes Research Farm in Pierre, South Dakota. Beck’s focus is no-till systems for irrigated and dryland areas in central South Dakota. Producers can profitably adopt no-till techniques across the Great Plains. He discovered that to increase profitability he needed to minimize weed, disease and insect problems.

Joining Beck on Day 2 is Steve Tucker. Tucker is a primarily dryland, no-till farmer from Venango, Nebraska. He is one of three Soil Health Champions from Nebraska. The transition of the farm to a complete, no-till system was not easy. He could see that diversity was important in dealing with challenging commodity production. Tucker studied and experimented with alternative crops that come with high risks, but also lead to a large reward. No-till farming practices were going to help increase efficiency, soil quality, reduce erosion and increase the bottom line. Today, Tucker Farms also works to provide low cost, premium quality forage and cover crop seed of all types and blends. Tucker will discuss “Modern Day Profitable Regenerative Farming”

Organizers of conference: Haxtun, Morgan, Sedgwick, Centennial, Yuma County, Conservation Districts, Upper Republican Natural Resource District and NRCS

Major Sponsors of conference: Organizers and Arrow Seed, Colorado Association of Conservation Districts

Lodging Options in Holyoke, all are located along Hwy 385.

The Burge Hotel (Historic Building) 970-854-2261 (north end of town)

Cobblestone Inn & Suites 970-854-3222 (south end of town)

Golden Plains Motel 970-854-3000 (south end of town)

Holyoke has a number of places to eat, most of which are locally owned and operated and offer a variety of food choices. You will find Kardales, First Dragon, Los Parras, and the Pizza Pad on Hwy 385 north of the stoplight as well at the grocery store which has fried chicken and sides. South of the stoplight 1 block on highway 385 is Subway and at the very south end of town is Blisties. The Skillet is 1/2 block west of the stoplight and Taqueria Hernandez is 1 block west. East of the stoplight 1/2 block you'll find Texas style barbeque at Happy Jacks and 4 blocks east in a blue building is Amanda's Mercado.

Farming Evolution 2020

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