February 22, 2019

Attendees at the 2019 Commodity Classic conference in Orlando will have the opportunity to hear from leading U.S. farmers using cover crops during the “Plugging into the power of your regional cover crop council” session on Thursday, Feb. 28 at 1:45 pm. A panel session will feature the following farmers from four regions of the U.S.:

• Jimmy Emmons – Jimmy and his wife Ginger have a 2000 acre crop operation in Okla. growing wheat, soybeans, sesame, sunflowers, irrigated alfalfa, canola, grain sorghum and several cover crops, along with cattle on native rangeland.
• John Burk – John and his father farm 4000 acres of corn, soybeans, sugar beets, wheat and spring barley near Bay City, Mich. They use a variety of cover crops for diverse benefits, including red clover, oilseed radish, oats and rye.
• Donn Branton – Donn farms with his son Chad on 1500 acres near Rochester, N. Y., in the western part of the state. They raise primarily grain crops but also some vegetables and use cover crops for conservation benefits and soil health.
• Douglas Poole – Douglas and family members raise wheat, canola and sunflowers on their Ore. farm. They have switched to no-till and implemented the use of cover crops as part of a strategy to boost yields and improve soil health.

These four farmers will share information on how they use cover crops and the benefits they see for soil health on their farms. They will also discuss some of the information sources they use, particularly the regional cover crop councils that work to develop and share information on cover crop selection and management. 

The four regional cover crop councils in the U.S. are non-profit information sharing networks that seek to identify best management practices for each region and particular needs with education programs and research projects on cover crop use. They hold annual meetings for farmers and others interested in learning about the latest progress with cover crops.

This panel session is sponsored by the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program and GO Seed. Both these organizations have conducted education programs to support farmers’ use of cover crops, with GO Seed also providing new and improved cultivars of cover crops and the SARE program supporting research on how to best use cover crops in various cropping situations. See more about these organizations at www.GOSeed.com and www.sare.org/covercrops.

For more information about the panel session, click here.

Website: http://www.grasslandoregon.com

Published: February 22, 2019