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No Till Notes: 'Panhandle No-Till Conference'

The Panhandle No-till Partnership is hosting the Panhandle No-Till Conference on Feb. 10-11. The conference is to be held at the Gering Civic Center beginning with registration at 8 a.m. each day.

The local Natural Resources Conservation Service offices in the panhandle have mailed the brochure to producers with the conference agenda and the preregistration form included. This information is also posted on the PNTP website at http://www.panhandlenotill.org.

Pre-registration is appreciated so the meal counts for the conference will be accurate. Pre-registration fee for the two-day conference including lunch meals, refreshment breaks, and evening social hour after the first day is $75 if postmarked by Feb. 2. You can print the brochure from that website to mail in your registration to 430 E. 2nd St., Chadron, NE 69337. Registration at the door will be $100.

The PNTP is committed to providing a very educational conference at an affordable price to our area producers, landowners and agribusinesses.

Ray Archuleta will start the conference off with an enthusiastic presentation on soil health and why soil health is so important in today’s production agriculture. Archuleta has been with Natural Resources Conservation Service for more than 25 years. He is a member of the Soil Quality Team for NRCS. He is a Certified Professional Soil Scientist with the Soil Science Society of America. I’ve heard him speak previously and he brings a wealth of knowledge and energy to his presentations.

PNTP has also brought back Gabe Brown to this year’s conference. Brown is a farmer/rancher from Bismarck, N.D. He is a pioneer in improving soil health on his operation and he is willing to share his ideas and concepts with us. Brown has shown how improving soil health can improve the performance of your soil and the profitability of your operation. His presentation is titled “The Five Principles to a Healthy Soil.” I will guarantee you will be impressed with the model of soil health he and his son, Paul, have brought to their operation.

We have also invited Wendy Taheri to speak at our conference this year. I heard Taheri speak on two different occasions last year and I was very impressed with her knowledge of soil microbiology. I was also very impressed with Taheri’s ability to talk about soil microbiology in a manner that makes sense to a producer. In addition, two regional producers are lined up to speak at this year’s conference. Scott Ravenkamp is a producer from Hugo, Colo., who has incorporated livestock into his no-till crop production model by including forage crops as part of his production system. Ravenkamp’s topic for his presentation is “Carbon-The Limiting Factor.”

Steve Tucker is a grain producer from Venango, Nebraska. His topic for his presentation is “Thinking for a Change.” I’ve known Tucker for several years and have always found him to be very forward thinking and willing to try new concepts on his farm. He will share with us the knowledge he has gained from changing his farm to a no-till crop production system.

Jeff Bradshaw, entomologist with the UNL Panhandle Research & Extension center will talk about the latest updates on the wheat stem sawfly. Dr. Bradshaw has been working hard on developing strategies for attempting to control this harmful insect in winter wheat production in our area.

We have invited Don Day, meteorologist from Cheyenne, Wyo., back to our conference to discuss current and expected weather patterns. Everyone knows farmers really enjoy talking about the weather and Don will share his views on what type of weather we can expect for this coming growing season. I think the PNTP has again put together an excellent conference this year. I hope you will take the time out of your busy schedule to attend this year’s conference. I’m sure it will prove to be time and money well spent.

 

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